Copyright Question- Chapel Talks by J.W. McGarvey

I have a resource  that I have put in docx format for my own use and am willing to share it, but am not sure I should.  It is J.W. McGarvey's "Chapel Talks" from 1910-1911.    What I am using, however, is from 1956 with an introduction from 1956.  It seems to be the first publishing of the manuscripts that McGarvey wrote in 1910-1911. 

I am sure that the preface could not be published here.  But if someone prints a work from long after the author is dead (McGarvey died later in the year 1911) do they automatically get to copyright it? (The work I am using nowhere claims copyright).  There are 45 years between 1911 and 1956, but does that matter?  The author of the preface did not write the text of the book. 

I think they are worthy of sharing because (as Fanning Yater Tant says in the Preface);

"When McGarvey died on October 11, 1911, he was the acknowledged leader of the conservative scholarship of the world in the field of Biblical criticism. His technical equipment in this field was second to none; even the liberals and modernists with whom he crossed swords respected his unique talents and his superb ability in both Old Testament and New Testament criticism-particularly the former.

"In view of the controversial nature of most of his writings, these chapel addresses are wonderfully revealing. Here was one whom controversy did not sour, and whose kindly humorous comments on college life are all the more significant because of the background from whence they came."


Preface from : McGarvey, John W. Chapel Talks. Lufkin, TX: The Gospel Guardian Company, 1956.