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Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
Unless some dedicated soul has preserved those books (or the Library of Congress will give them up), getting that old material could be tough.
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For Doc Savage, somebody out there will have the books. The question will be whether they can be scanned in a non-destructive way (should be quite possible, but may require care) and will a collector feel like sharing their collection with the masses, even if only in digital form. I would think most book collectors would be willing, as wider distribution of the work should only increase the value of original paper copies, even assuming they wouldn't want to do it just for the sake of sharing a favorite work, but some people are funny that way.
The main problem is likely to still be getting copyright clearance. Bantam still exists, but does Bantam proper hold the copyright? There are plenty of small presses that went out of business, or got bought by larger houses and records lost or relationships tangled. Some rights may have reverted to authors' estates and there may be no one left to represent the estate. Yet, with the extensions to copyright law prompted by Disney and others (at least in the U.S.) it could be illegal to digitize these "abandoned" books. Frustrating.
