hugo gellert

answer

answer: 

Your question has two aspects, which may not be as related as you think, but I will try to address them both.

First, as to the history of the R. Long & R.R. Smith company: the following information was gathered by drawing on the expertise of the EXLIBRIS-L email discussion group. An index of Publishers' Trade List Annual contains this entry: "Long, Ray, & R.R. Smith, Inc., NY, 1932; Long & Smith, Richard R., Religion Publications. See Harper & Bros., 1934; see Julian Messner, Inc., 1935-1945." This would indicate that the company was transferred to Messner. Subsequently, "Julian Messner Co. became a division of Simon & Schuster in 1977; presumably all of their copyrights became the property of S&S at that time."

However, the work in question appears to have been first self-published as "...in pictures" in 1933: see this WorldCat entry - which lists publication info as: [White Plains, N.Y., Hugo Gellert, ©1933] A search in the library catalogs of the two institutions listed (Yale and NYU) did not find that edition. But this information makes it clear that the copyright was registered to Gellert, not the publishers.

Related Question

QUESTION: publishing rights

question / pregunta: 

i'm interested in trying to get hugo gellert's 1934 book "marx's 'capital' in
lithographs" (New York, R. Long & R.R. Smith) republished.

i'd like to make it available in a popular edition with an introductory essay.

however, i can't seem to find any details about the imprint (which i
suspect doesn't exist anymore) and so i don't know who holds the rights to
the book. since it's from 1934, i'm not sure if it's yet in the public domain.

can you please tell me who holds the rights to this book?

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