The key statements regarding rights for my project are these, from
Chicago Manual of Style, 14th ed., 4. 26 and 4.28. They’re the rationale behind my getting permissions for using the 1932 edition of the VN (which I reproduced in my book):
Quote:
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Pre-1978 published U.S. works: Works published before December 31, 1922, are now in the public domain. Works pubilished during the years 1923 through 1963 are still under copyright if their copyrights were properly renewed in the twenty-eighth year after first publication. . . . Works published from 1964 through 1977 will be protected without fail for 95 years.
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Quote:
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Pre-1978 published foreign works: In the United States, a pre-1978 foreign work automatically receives the same term of copyright at as pre-1978 U.S. work, but without regard to whether proper copyright notice ever appeared on it, and without regard to whether copyright was renewed in the twenty-eighth year after publication. . . . It should e noticed that the U.S. copyright term for foreign works, even after restoration, does not synchronize with the protection of those works outside the United States. If a French author of a work published in 1922 lived until 1970, the work would now be in the public domain in the United States but would remain under copyright in France until 2040 [70 years after the author's death]. If the same author had published another work in 1923, that work would retain copyright in the United States until 2018, still twenty-two years less than in France.”
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This is why the 1932 edition (“official” because it’s the standard text) of the VN’s copyright lasts until 2027 in the U.S.