How does one do a copyright holder search?

I'm pretty sure there's someone on my flist who knows the answer to this.

Let's say that I'm interested in doing an adaptation of a novel into another medium. The original author is dead and the book is out of print.

How would I go about finding the person who currently owns the copyright? If the work was written before 1977, how can I determine that the work was properly copyrighted at all?

I can't remember if I have mentioned this: DM of the Rings

Shamus Young is the proprietor of Twenty Sided, a blog about games and gaming. Its most notable feature is the web comic "DM of the Rings", which is a fumetti/photo-funny using image captures from The Lord of The Rings movies to retell the story as an actual D&D campaign.

"Hi, Guys! I'm Frank--I mean Boromir. I'm a fighter. Oh yeah. The stuff the DM gave me says I'm from the land of Krondor."

"Yeah, I'm Legolas. I'm supposed to tell you that I'm an elf from Dirkwood and that some guy named Gollum escaped from jail. So I guess I tell you guys about that."

"Greetings, lads! Tis a merry moment to meet such fine and brave heroes! My name is Gimli, son of Groin. I forsee we shall have great adventures together!"

"Oh no. Who let the roleplayer into the group?"

"You punks stay in character! I was playing D&D before you got your first Nintendo!"

[all sic]

There's the usual mix of gamer types: clueless, inattentive, Really Into Role-Playing, sitting on the couch playing Xbox, all brought together by a GM who is great at backstory but who saddles the players with a railroad plot, too many NPCs, and not enough treasure.

It's winding to an end--Frodo is at Mt. Doom in the most recent installment, and the fate of Middle-Earth hangs on a die roll. But really you want to start at the beginning. And set aside some time--there are a lot of pages, and if you like it at all, you're probably going to have a hard time stopping.

The only good Republican. . .

. . . is an ex-Republican.

In the last few months, two high-profile Westchester elected officials have stopped being moderate GOPs and become Democrats. This includes my state assemblyman, Mike Spano and my district attorney, Janet DiFiore. Both said, in effect, that the national Republican party was supporting an agenda that they could no longer share.

(Long-time readers might remember that my Republican state senator for many years, Nick "No Relation" Spano, was defeated last year by Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the only turned-over seat in the NY State Senate. The NY legislature is incredibly entrenched.)

Obviously, I'm very proud to have elected officials who can see the handwriting on the wall. What interests me is whether Westchester is unique, or whether there are other state- or county-level conversions going on that aren't making the national press--because, after all, the only government which matters in the eyes of the national media is The White House.

What's going on where you are?