Republishing F.B. Cooke's books - Who could do this for us ?

S

STATUE

Well-Known Member
Joined
5 May 2010
Messages
637
Location
S. Dorset
Visit site
Now I am working on the premise that no one has done this.

So, who could Republish F.B. Cooke's books - the originals are now getting very expensive, which is a shame as they ought to become available to a much wider audience.

Its not just the technical guidance you get, the gentlemanly language of the 1930s, but he writes with an irony that would have done Anthony Trollope proud.
 
JumbleDuck said:
He lived, and was still writing, into the 1970s. All his works are therefore still copyright for another 35 years or so, and permission from the copyright holder would be needed for Project Gutenberg to add them.
Click to expand...

Indeed. He seems to have died in 1974 at the grand age of 102, so copyright would normally lapse in 2044.
See post #14, here: http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?44943-Francis-B-Cooke
(The same link might even help in finding the current copyright holder.)
 
Would there be much of a market for such books nowadays? Yachting, as he knew it, has almost gone, the inshore anchorages are marinas or closely packed moorings, the boats are different, the people are different, engines and electronics predominate. The simple seamanship he practised and advocated has almost gone; the yachtsman who sails up to or from his mooring is likely to find himself cursed in the YBW Forums as a reckless fool!
 
steve yates said:
You can download singlehanded cruising here https://archive.org/details/singlehandedcrui00cookuoft
The kindle and off files are on the rhs.
Click to expand...

That one was a compilation of articles for Yachting World, who (at the time of publishing) held copyright. Of course copyright law was very different back then, so who holds it now might not be straightforward.

I've no idea who might have held original copyright on Cooke's other volumes: perhaps a similar arrangement, perhaps not.
 
parsifal said:
Would there be much of a market for such books nowadays? Yachting, as he knew it, has almost gone, the inshore anchorages are marinas or closely packed moorings, the boats are different, the people are different, engines and electronics predominate. The simple seamanship he practised and advocated has almost gone; the yachtsman who sails up to or from his mooring is likely to find himself cursed in the YBW Forums as a reckless fool!
Click to expand...

I'd like to read them, for exactly those reasons. As nostalgic history rather than practical instruction.

Sounds like the sort of thing that might be serialised in the Marine Quarterly.

Pete
 
Much of his personal library was donated to North Fambridge Yacht Club on FBCs passing.
Some body at the club may remember enough to throw some light on this matter.
 
macd said:
That one was a compilation of articles for Yachting World, who (at the time of publishing) held copyright. Of course copyright law was very different back then, so who holds it now might not be straightforward.

I've no idea who might have held original copyright on Cooke's other volumes: perhaps a similar arrangement, perhaps not.
Click to expand...

Don't think it matters what copyright was then, it was retrospective when it changed I believe. But it does say on that site it is out of copyright, so whether his family waived it, or they are just wrong, I do not know.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top