Books newly entering the public domain in 2026 include the following, as charted by Duke University’s Center for the Public Domain: As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett The Murder at the Vicarage, Agatha Christie’s first novel featuring Miss Marple The first four Nancy Drew books, beginning with The Secret of the Old Clock, by Carolyn Keene (pseudonym for Mildred Benson) The Little Engine That Could, by Watty Piper (pen name of Arnold Munk), illustrated by Lois Lenski Elson Basic Readers (the first appearances of Dick and Jane), by William H. Elson Vile Bodies, […]
