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PEOPLE & ARTS Thursday 23 January 2020
Everyone invited: `Great Gatsby’ copyright to end in 2021

By HILLEL ITALIE sual,” and was struck by
Associated Press his sense of detail, whether
NEW YORK (AP) — For de- describing cars, emotions
cades, Jay Gatsby, Daisy or economic status.
Buchanan and other char- “Not only are the hues spe-
acters from “The Great cific, (blue, yellow, laven-
Gatsby” have been as real der), but what deeply in-
to millions of readers as trigues me is how specific
people in their own lives, color saturation is to mood
exemplars and victims of and class hierarchy. For ex-
the American pursuit of ample, at the Buchanans,
wealth and status. people are wearing white
Starting next January, F. and the colors (greens,
Scott Fitzgerald’s classic reds, peaches), have a
Jazz Age tale will truly be- very delicate and ‘pretty’
long to everyone. feel,” she wrote, adding
The novel’s copyright is that her illustrations also
set to expire at the end of were influenced by car ad-
2020, meaning that any- vertisements from the ’20s.
one will be allowed to pub- “To me, this theme is cen-
lish the book, adapt it to a tral to the story because
movie, make it into an op- within American car culture
era or stage a Broadway is the notion, or fantasy, of
musical. No longer will you mobility. In other words, the
need to permission to write idea that we have the free-
a sequel, a prequel, a Jay This combination of cover images released by Scribner shows the 2018 cover image of the novel dom to physically move to
Gatsby detective novel or "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, left, and "The Great Gatsby: The Graphic Novel," with another place and leave
a Gatsby narrative popu- illustrations by Aya Morton and adapted text by Fred Fordham. behind the old problems or
lated with Zombies. Associated Press even the old person.”
“We’re just very grateful to Fitzgerald’s novel has been
have had it under copy- in 1940, fewer than 25,000 issued the book with a so- tion, because every time used in other art forms. It’s
right, not just for the rather copies of the book had called authoritative text, a reader returns to ‘The at the heart of “Gatz,” an
obvious benefits, but to try sold. Now, worldwide sales making minor changes Great Gatsby,’ we discov- eight-hour stage show from
and safeguard the text, are nearing 30 million and based on Fitzgerald’s own er new revelations, new in- 2010 in which the entire
to guide certain projects more than 500,000 copies notes. The introduction was sights, new burning bits of book is read. Several movie
and try to avoid unfor- sell each year in the U.S. provided by Scribner au- language.” versions have come out,
tunate ones,” says Blake alone, according to Scrib- thor Jesmyn Ward, a two- Hazard was closely in- from a silent film released
Hazard, the late author’s ner. time National Book Award volved with the graphic not long after “Gatsby”
great-granddaughter and Publishers specializing in winner who wrote of how novel, which features il- was published to direc-
a trustee of his literary es- older works already are pre- she, an African American lustrations by Aya Morton tor Baz Luhrmann’s high-
tate. “We’re now looking paring their own editions. from rural Mississippi, could and an adaptation of the energy production in 2013,
to a new period and trying The Library of America will relate to Fitzgerald’s saga text by Fred Fordham, who starring Leonardo DiCaprio
to view it with enthusiasm, include the novel next year set in Long Island, New York. worked on the graphic as Gatsby. Hazard said she
knowing some exciting in a planned hardcover “Hungry as I was to escape novel of “To Kill a Mocking- enjoyed the Luhrmann film
things may come.” volume, edited by West, of my own little nowhere bird.” Hazard researched and a 1973 version starring
“I wish it were possible for Fitzgerald’s work. The Every- country town, my own various illustrators before Robert Redford, and imag-
the Fitzgerald Trust to retain man Library, which for years poor beginnings, as a teen coming upon “His Dream ines other ways the story
copyright,” says Fitzgerald has published the novel in I could only see Gatsby’s of the Skyland,” a graphic can be adapted to the
scholar James L. W. West the United Kingdom, will re- yearning. I was too young novel set in Hong Kong in screen.
III, a professor emeritus at lease a hardcover edition to know his wanting is wast- the 1920s that features Mor- “I would love to see an
Pennsylvania State Univer- in the U.S. ed from the moment he ton’s drawings and words inclusive adaptation of
sity. “They have been won- As with such current public feels it,” Ward writes. “The by Ann Opotowsky. ‘Gatsby,’ with a diverse
derful caretakers of Fitzger- domain titles as “Pride and seasoned heart aches for Morton told the AP in a re- cast,” she says. “Though
ald’s literary rights and his Prejudice,” “The Scarlet James Gatz, the perpetual cent email that she had the story is set in a very
reputation. But under our Letter”and “Great Expec- child, the arrested roman- long admired 1920s fashion specific time and place, it
laws all literary works even- tations,” cheap paperback tic, bound by one perfect for its “structured graphic seems to me that a retelling
tually belong to the peo- editions and free e-book moment to failure. design″ and “fluid, dreamy of this great American story
ple. That’s probably as it editions are likely to prolif- “This is a book that endures, quality.” She called Fitzger- could and should reflect a
should be.” erate. generation after genera- ald’s novel “incredibly vi- more diverse America.”q
“Gatsby” has endured in Scribner editor-in-chief Nan
a changing industry and Graham acknowledges
a changing world. It was that sales are likely to fall,
published in 1925 by Scrib- but says the publisher is
ner and remains a Scrib- working to hold on to as
ner book, though now part much of the market as it
of Simon & Schuster. The can, drawing in part on
novel, popular with gener- its long ties to Fitzgerald’s
al readers and a standard heirs.
assignment for students, A graphic novel, featuring
has sales as dependable an introduction from Blake
as any so-called “backlist Hazard, is coming out in
title.” When Fitzgerald died June. In 2018, Scribner re-