Of Withered Apples by Philip K. Dick is PUBLIC DOMAIN.
First published in Cosmos Science Fiction And Fantasy. This short story was not previously known to be public domain due to a falsification on a copyright renewal. Observe the relevant page from the renewal:
As you can see it shows that Of Withered Apples was supposed to have been first published in volume 1, issue 33, of Uncanny Tales (July 1955).
So, I tracked down a copy of that comic book and am providing photographic evidence that it was not published in that issue.
Normally in these cases I would simply show the copyright page and/or the table of contents page. But as comics of that era often didn’t credit writers, and most also didn’t offer a table of contents page, this is impossible.
Instead, I have had the entire issue photographed, cover to cover, to show that Of Withered Apples was:
A. Not published in that issue.
B. Was not published in that issue uncredited.
Here is the proof |PDF|.
And please note, that while the issue does contain a textual story, it is not, most certainly not, Of Withered Apples.
Of Withered Apples was published a year earlier, in Cosmos Science Fiction And Fantasy, July 1954. Here is the table of contents show that:
And finally, here is a |PDF| made from that publication.
[Thanks Julie!]
Posted by Jesse Willis
It is incredible how much copyright fraud was done after PKD was dead. It’s great work to bring these into light, keep up the good work!
I don’t know how well the copy & paste from the file description at http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/File:Of_Withered_Apples.djvu#filelinks will display here but it contains links to some comic databases with entries for this issue of Uncanny Tales.
English: “Of Withered Apples” is a short fantasy story by Philip K. Dick. Dick originally published in Cosmos Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine, July 1954. Scan from magazine donated anonymously. The scan was carefully compared to a physical copy of the magazine by Refrigerator Heaven to verify authenticity before image format conversion and uploading.
Cosmos Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine was published by Star Publications, Inc. in 1953 and 1954. This was the fourth and final issue of the magazine and has a 1954 copyright notice. A thorough search of the Copyright Office Online Catalog for renewals of this magazine issue and for every individual story in it shows no copyright renewal was made for the story “Of Withered Apples” by Philip K. Dick originally published in this issue and the story is the public domain.
This story should not be confused with “Of Withered Apples” by Philip K. Dick listed in Copyright Renewal Registration Number RE0000190631 (1983-11-22) as originally published in Uncanny Tales, Vol. 1, no. 33, July 1955 (B00000540363). The 1955 “Of Withered Apples” appears to be a bibliographic phantom (i.e., referenced somewhere but non-existent or misattributed). The contents of Cosmos Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine, July 1954 are listed at http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?202321. Contents of Uncanny Tales, July 1955 (B00000540363; renewal RE0000174593) are listed at http://atlastales.com/issue/4380 (apparently all stories) and http://comicbookdb.com/issue.php?ID=191029 (partial contents only).