Sources & Copyright
Every text in the Quillstead library is in the public domain in the United States — old enough, or old enough as a specific edition, that no one holds an active copyright on it. Quillstead doesn't write or license this material; it selects, excerpts, and formats existing public-domain text for line-by-line typing practice.
Each category draws from a different kind of source:
- Bible — the King James Version (first published 1611), a translation with no active copyright anywhere.
- Poetry — individual poems by authors including William Blake, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, all published before 1924 and long out of copyright.
- Literature — excerpts from novels and fables written for children, including Louisa May Alcott's Little Women (1868), Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902), and Aesop's fables in an 1867 translation.
- Speeches — historic American public documents and addresses: the Declaration of Independence (1776), the Gettysburg Address (1863), and Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address (1865).
The exact author, work, and date for any individual text are shown directly beneath its title on that text's own page — that line is the citation, not this page. Some longer works (a full psalm or a long speech) are trimmed to a verse range or opening excerpt for a single practice session; where that's the case, the text's title says so directly (for example, "Psalm 90 (Verses 1–6)").
This page describes the general public-domain status of each category, not a line-by-line verification of every text against a specific original printing. If you're quoting a Quillstead text for scholarly work, publishing, or anything else where exact wording matters, verify it against a primary source rather than copying it from here.