On the Books: Judge declares Sherlock Holmes officially in the public domain

The Seventh Circuit Court ruled that Sherlock Homes is now in the public domain, freeing up the 127-year-old-character to be used without the permission of Conan Doyle’s estate. Leslie Klinger, author, editor, and Sherlock Holmes enthusiast, filed the case against the Doyle estate while preparing the short story anthology In the Company of Sherlock Holmes, which collects tales by contemporary writers that riff on stories from the Holmes canon. Judge Richard Posner agreed that the copyright expiration meant that Klinger doesn’t need the permission of the Doyle estate to publish the book. This also means that everyone making Sherlock Holmes film and TV adaptations—BBC (Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman), Warner Bros. (Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law), and CBS (Elementary with Johnny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu)—will no longer have to get the permission of or pay royalties to the estate. No word yet on whether the estate wants to take the case to the Supreme Court. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Despite all the media hoopla, Hillary Clinton’s book Hard Choices, released a week ago, isn’t selling too well. While readers have bought 85,000 copies—enough easily make the memoir the #1 hardcover nonfiction book of the week—Clinton’s 2003 memoir, Living History, sold 600,000 copies during the same amount of time. At least she’s doing better than Mitt Romney, whose 2012 memoir No Apology sold 42,000 copies its first week. [The Washington Post]

More than 20 unpublished love poems written by Nobel Laureate Pablo Neruda have been discovered in Chile. The poems, dated from the 1950s and 1960s, display “the imaginative power, the full expressive power and the same gift, the erotic and romantic passion” of Neruda’s best work, contemporary Spanish poet Pere Gimferrer said. Officials of the Pablo Neruda foundation found the poems in boxes of his papers, and plan to publish them later this year and in 2015. No English translation has been announced yet. [LA Times]