Books: What have you been reading?

[Deathstroke]

I finished reading Lee Goldberg's Bone Canyon.

[FluffySheep]

I'm currently reading this after seeing the TV documentary a while ago. Really interesting.

[achilles]

Damn, I was just looking on Amazon for some scifi novels; and it unfortunately occured to me to look up my father. Which pissed me off as he was messed over by his "agent" Forry Ackerman as Dad called him, along with other, more colorful adjectives. Seems Forrest always seemed to have forgotten those pesky foreign royalty payments to my Dad, not to mention much of the domestic. And my Dad had the business sense of a two year old. But the WORST thing Forrest did was not inform my Dad that his copyrights were about to lapse. Which Ackerman knew full well, but decided not to tell my as I said rather clueless about the business Dad. Which meant my Dad wasn't able to renew his copyright.

This is the result:

https://www.amazon.com/Floyd-L-Walla.../dp/1937022277

Actually, Amazon has a bunch of other of his stuff, and none of it benefits his family, or when he was alive...him, thanks to Ackerman's conveniently forgetting to mention the copyright renewal.

These was all written well before I was born, but it frosts me that neither my Dad when he was alive, or out family has seen much more than a few dollars----literally.

AND.....it's even up at Project Guttenburg for free as well, and in sundry audio books that we also get nothing from. I mean, years after my Dad died, he still gets fan mail from all over the world...and got almost no money from his actual writing,

I know Forrest Ackerman gets a lot of praise....but from someone who knew him and was his client....well, he came across as a bit of a crook.

He was a contemporary of Philip K. Dick, (don't know if they ever met). Certainly he never obtained the fame of many of the others, but he did win awards. And also experienced the joy of having someone, (he blamed Ackerman), for not even telling him about his royalties. He was BTW one of those sci-fi /mystery mag writers who also wrote novels and novelas. He even had the tragic Wally Wood do several covers of his stuff.

What set me off what this.

This is another view of the "kindly" agent/collector from someone who knew him.

However, Dad may have his revenge. Not against Ackerman, who is beyond that sort of thing, but against the system; as he left behind dozens of story ideas that I can pursue, this time making very sure that any money goes to me and my family after.

Sorry, off-topic, but it seemed like a good place to vent after I saw all my father's works being sold with nothing coming to the man who created it, or his heirs. It frosts me.


Oh that bit on the link about the only collection of his works being in Italian....is a lie. He's been published in too many languages for me to recall back in the day.

[evolutionaryFan]

Damn, I was just looking on Amazon for some scifi novels; and it unfortunately occured to me to look up my father. Which pissed me off as he was messed over by his "agent" Forry Ackerman as Dad called him, along with other, more colorful adjectives. Seems Forrest always seemed to have forgotten those pesky foreign royalty payments to my Dad, not to mention much of the domestic. And my Dad had the business sense of a two year old. But the WORST thing Forrest did was not inform my Dad that his copyrights were about to lapse. Which Ackerman knew full well, but decided not to tell my as I said rather clueless about the business Dad. Which meant my Dad wasn't able to renew his copyright.

Are you sure about this? As far as I know there is no need to renew copyright.

In the USA... for works published before 1978... copyright lasts for 95 years. For works published after 1978, copyright lasts for the lifetime of the author plus 70 years. Doesn't sound right to me that his copyrights could lapse.

So your father's copyrights should still be intact and his estate should have a legal claim over that. I'd advise to recheck on this.

AND.....it's even up at Project Guttenburg for free as well, and in sundry audio books that we also get nothing from.

Yeah, I saw your father's works up there listed as public domain. This doesn't make sense to me. Really advise you to look into this to make sure your family/estate isn't be ripped off.

Works published in 1925 became public domain in 2021.

https://www.npr.org/2021/01/01/95117...alloway-are-in

Your father's works should still be under copyright.

[The Darknight Detective]

Latest Kindle reads: the short story The Vampire Maid (1900) by Hume Nisbet and the novel Fool's Fate (2004) - the latter being the final installment from The Tawny Man Trilogy by Robin Hobb.

[Zauriel]

I finished reading The Kennedy Curse: Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years, authored by Edward Klein. Really interesting.

[achilles]

Are you sure about this? As far as I know there is no need to renew copyright.

In the USA... for works published before 1978... copyright lasts for 95 years. For works published after 1978, copyright lasts for the lifetime of the author plus 70 years. Doesn't sound right to me that his copyrights could lapse.

So your father's copyrights should still be intact and his estate should have a legal claim over that. I'd advise to recheck on this.



Yeah, I saw your father's works up there listed as public domain. This doesn't make sense to me. Really advise you to look into this to make sure your family/estate isn't be ripped off.

Works published in 1925 became public domain in 2021.

https://www.npr.org/2021/01/01/95117...alloway-are-in

Your father's works should still be under copyright.

He rechecked it, and hired a lawyer. He said we had no case. These were all works done before 1978, which has different laws. We just got so discouraged, and didn't have the money for a fight.

[evolutionaryFan]

He rechecked it, and hired a lawyer. He said we had no case.

ok. Sorry about that.

[Albert1981]

Tomorrow PBS will be airing a documentary dedicated to L. Frank Baum, the author of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, called American OZ. It will be shown between 9:00 PM and 11:00 PM. Should be fun to watch!

[Chubistian]

Le cinema selon Hitchcock, by François Truffaut. An amazing book that is basically several interviews that Truffaut did to Hitchcock. I recommend it to anyone interested in films and filmmaking

[The Darknight Detective]

New book I'm reading: The Age of Federalism: The Early American Republic, 1788-1800 (1993) by Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick.

[Deathstroke]

I finished reading the Jack Carr thriller THE DEVIL'S HAND last night.

[GemSaloon007]

Taking a break from Ross Macdonald to go back in time to see what lead up to him. Reading Dashiell Hammett who I've wanted to read for a long time. Finished Red Harvest (liked, didn't love) and am now reading The Dain Curse which I am starting to enjoy a lot. I'm just really looking forward to getting to The Maltese Falcon. And the Thin Man, which I hear is fun. After this, I'll probably read Raymond Chandler.

[The Darknight Detective]

Taking a break from Ross Macdonald to go back in time to see what lead up to him. Reading Dashiell Hammett who I've wanted to read for a long time. Finished Red Harvest (liked, didn't love) and am now reading The Dain Curse which I am starting to enjoy a lot. I'm just really looking forward to getting to The Maltese Falcon. And the Thin Man, which I hear is fun. After this, I'll probably read Raymond Chandler.

The Dain Curse is the one novel I haven't read by Hammett (though I saw the TV movie featuring James Coburn years ago).

[MajorHoy]

Taking a break from Ross Macdonald to go back in time to see what lead up to him. Reading Dashiell Hammett who I've wanted to read for a long time. Finished Red Harvest (liked, didn't love) and am now reading The Dain Curse which I am starting to enjoy a lot. I'm just really looking forward to getting to The Maltese Falcon. And the Thin Man, which I hear is fun. After this, I'll probably read Raymond Chandler.

Have fun with them.

I've read many of Hammett's and most of Chandler's Philip Marlowe books, as well as quite a few of Ross Macdonald's Archer novels. I've also been enjoying stories by Frederick Nebel, a guy who had quite a bit of work published in Black Mask magazine. (Black Mask was where stories by Hammett and Chandler had been published.)