On Albert Bester's "The Demolished Man"

I was motivated to read this novel after hearing a story by David Mamet in his masterclass on writing. I described the story in my blog post on his class.

Alfred Bester (1913-1987) wrote science fiction, but also wrote for TV, radio, and comic books. He was an editor for a travel magazine for many years. In 1936 he married Rolly Bester, the actress who played the first Lois Lane on the radio show Adventures of Superman.

Among his many short stories and novels, Bester is perhaps best known for The Demolition Man (1952) and The Stars My Destination (1956), both serialized in Galaxy magazine. The 1952 novel won the first ever Hugo Award given at the 11th World Science Fiction Convention.

I'm not a lawyer but here is some information which suggests both of these novels are in the public domain. The Internet Archive has The Demolished Man, scanned from it's publication in Galaxy, (part 1, part 2, and part 3, and likewise for the 1956 novel). While there is an indication that Bester renewed the copyright (see this search item for the 1952 novel, and this item for the 1956 novel), the copyright page of Galaxy indicates that Galaxy owned the copyright and so it seems to me, as a non-lawyer, it is Galaxy that had to renew it. (I base my reasoning on the section "Who May Claim Renewal" in this copyright.gov pdf.)

I've typed all of The Demolished Man into latex, including the original artwork, for fun and to learn Bester's writing style by forcing myself to pay attention to the details. A really terrific novel by an excellent writer.