A Florida judge has ruled that the will of Gabrielle Kerouac, the mother of the late author who inherited his estate in 1969, was a forgery, citing testimony from handwriting experts and doctors. Gabrielle had passed the literary estate to Kerouac’s third wife, Stella, now also deceased, who gave everything to her siblings in 1990. The suit was brought by the author’s reportedly impoverished nephew Paul Blake Jr., who took over the original action filed by Kerouac’s estranged (and now also deceased) daughter Jan in 1994. It’s not clear whether the new court ruling will bring Blake a share of […]
Estates
'Lassie' heirs regain rights – Entertainment News, Film News, Media – Variety
The daughter of Eric Knight, author of Lassie Come Home, prevailed over Classic Media in a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling handed down on Friday that reversed a 2006 District Court decision and affirms Winifred Knight Mewborn’s 1996 letter terminating Classic Media’s rights. Variety says “the court’s opinion addressed a complicated issue of copyright law involving whether the law’s termination of transfer right is eradicated by a post-1978 assignment of the rights. In a victory for authors and their heirs, the court held that their rights are not terminated.”Click here for the PDF of the court’s rulingVariety article
UK Agents Compete for Estates
Savvy agents have long known the advantages of representing well-established literary estates and now following the diminution of PFD, the gloves are off in London. The Times says: ” No point wasting one’s time with new authors. They’re unpredictable, demanding. They require lunch. No, what any literary agent worth his salt needs in 2008 is a classic author with form: famous, prolific and deceased within the past 70 years. In recent months, the literary estate – the body of work belonging to a dead author – has suddenly and unexpectedly become big business.” As previously reported, Andrew Wylie took over […]