The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter 1st October 2003
eBooks Readable By Both Humans and Computers For Since 1971
Part 2
In this week's Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter:
1) Editorial
2) News
Distributed Proofreaders Update
Radio Gutenberg Update
3) Notes and Queries, Reviews and Features
Quiz
4) Mailing list information
Editorial
Hello,
October. It's October already! Only not quite enough shopping days to
go until the world explodes, or something like that. This seems to be
all I've heard this week. What happened to the slow passing of the
year? the enjoyment of the seasons? the peace and tranquility?
Some of you have written to ask about the newsletter website. You will
notice that it hasn't been updated for a while. Well, I have been
trying to have a bit of a break back here at newsletter towers and so
the website slipped to somewhere a little lower on my priority
list, just above the floor to be exact. Expect updates and new
features from this week as I get back into gear.
Small note, Happy Hannuka to Gali, thank you.
Happy reading,
Alice
send email to the newsletter editor at: news@pglaf.org
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Newsletter editor: Alice Wood news@pglaf.org
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2) News and Comment
Distributed Proofreaders Update
This week's newsletter goes to press right at the start of a new
month. As October already promises to be an active and exciting month
at DP, we are going to focus on some of what's in store for the weeks
ahead of us.
First, a look back the month behind us. September started off in a
quiet manner, which was set in sharp contrast following the page
proofing marathon run to meet the monthly page objective within the
final hours of August. After that party we all needed a little Siesta,
maybe the server too. September did not finish anywhere near as quiet
as it began. Pulling together, the widely dispersed community of
proofreaders worked in a steady, dedicated fashion over the following
weeks. September saw a level of consistent high production which gave
the impression of a home-grown SlashDot event. The goal of proofed
pages for the month was met, and met well, and some impressive records
were set for DP history.
We come away from the successes of August and September with a
deepened sense of who we are and what we are capable of as a
distributed, but united community. What we each came to DP to work
upon we find empowered and increased upon itself by the strength and
support of this committed alliance. As we explore this distributed
Human network together, we are learning new things about the process
everyday, and more, we are learning about ourselves.
The name Distributed Proofreaders points up a significant aspect of
the project. DP is a network of allied individual people. The greater
share of on-line distributed projects utilize the combined power of
computer processors to take on large scale tasks. The results at DP,
while dependent upon the technology, are produced by the time, talent
and dedication of flesh and blood individuals. It is a rare
distinction among distributed projects, and worth making note of when
recognizing the accomplishments of the project.
There is no disputing the fact that the quality and output levels of
DP are on the rise. This is not a recent phenomenon, but the
cumulative result of craft and innovation that has been invested into
the endeavor from the very beginning. If I hold in mind a primary
objective for this weekly column it is to reveal and explore the
diverse craft-cultures which work to make up the finished product at
DP. Nothing happens independently within this process, the final texts
are the direct result of several stages of development. Some of these
stages have nothing directly to do with the text itself, such as the
creation of the code which runs DP and the building of the tools which
enhance and expedite the labor intensive text work. Every stage is
essential, all are interdependent. DP functions at it's best when
these diverse craft-cultures hold a unified vision and set their
intentions shoulder to shoulder. Glimpses of this dynamic force have
been shining through over the past few months with increasing regularity.
I will go on the line here and say that I believe October is going to
reveal just how unique and productive this unified creative force has become.
Within the next few days a major upgrade to the DP site will be
released. As always, this has developed and extensively tested in a
manner consistent with all work at DP. Broad participation in 'kicking
the tires,' so to speak, is not only encouraged but has long been an
essential component in the code development process. As expected,
there's still a little nervousness that we have set everything in the
correct place and squashed all the bugs we can possibly find. But
overall, we're ready for the rollout. However, there are still 48
hours or so within which you could prove to be the genius who finds
something the rest of us have missed. Checking is still underway, and
if you have not tried the testsite as yet, please do, and offer the
coding crew the benefit of 'fresh eyes.' Look for the New Release
thread at the top of the General forum.
Among the many new features, I will begin with one that is sure to be
a hit within the Project Gutenberg community:
MARC Record Search & Enhanced Project Creation Interface. Project Managers
will now be able to search the Library of Congress catalogs for MARC record
data on their projects. From within the Project Panel, managers can create both a
MARC record and a Dublin Core XML file for their project.
I think I can hear the PG librarians sighing already!
For the legions of proofers, Joseph Gruber has cooked up something Very Tasty:
Detailed Statistics. - DP member stat's with a history of pages
proofed, best days, neighborhood views with some info on friends and
neighbors and your own personal stat chart. The Team statistics have
been upgraded as well. There are now displays of who is on the team,
history of page count totals, best days, and more. An added search feature has also been added to both Member and Team statistics.
Other enhancements, in no certain order, include:
Project Queue Upgrades. - The project queues have been enhanced so as
to keep more of a variety of projects available at any given
time. Site Administrators will also have more flexibility in tweaking
project status for special needs or timely events.
Inclusion of XML Icons. - There is now an enhanced visibility of our
XML/RSS feeds with icons guiding managers to their locations. (The
start of something really big here!)
Zip File Uploading of Projects.- No longer do you have to FTP over a whole
directory of images and a whole directory of text files. Just zip the
project elements into one file, and upload directly from a hard drive.
LOCALISATION!! - (That's right, all caps.) Potentially, this is our most
important New feature. Members will now be able to get the site in
their native language. From the initial upgrade, languages available
are German, French, Finnish & Portuguese. There is also a translation
center available for those languages not as yet represented. Please
Note... If you are willing to translate portions of DP, you will find
enthusiastic support. Just post a note in the Future Features forum
with your intention and someone will promptly reply.
Time and space does not allow to list all the many features, but I
think you get the sense of how much work the coding team has put into
this major upgrade. On the whole, many small aspects to the site have
fixed which were noted over the summer. There should be noticeably
fewer bugs and errors throughout all the stages of development. Did I
hear someone mention 'site speed?' Oh yeah! They didn't forget ya'!
Did I say October was going to be exciting?
Two other events to watch for beginning today are Post Production
objectives and Authors' Birthday celebrations. Bill Keir, DP's Site
Admin', has studied the present status of projects which are within
the final stages of post processing and verification. Bill has set for
October a Goal for completing a certain number of projects by the end
of the month. I have seen the blueprints, and I would agree that
with a well structured and cooperative effort this figure of 300 texts
posted to PG, while higher than any previous month, is a realistic
objective. To reach it though, we are going to need to draw strongly
upon that 'unified creative force' we have been tapping into recently.
Finally, on the fun side of the month, we are beginning a completely
new feature at DP. A few weeks back, Tim Bonham, the author and
maintainer of DP's Proofing Guidelines came up with an idea for
increasing interest in, and thus PG content of, authors who are either
marginally represented in Project Gutenberg or not at all. Well he
clearly hit on to something big here, because the idea has gained
strong support, and will become a regular monthly feature from October forward.
In brief, as they are now waving at me from behind the curtain (who? me?
- Ed), Authors who have a birthday within a present month will receive
'special attention' from all levels of DP. This endeavor is growing
and expanding with each day, so I will keep a small space for current
updates within each column. The limits on obscure authors seems to
have already been lifted, although underdogs will always get highest
priority. If you want to learn more, suggest ideas or become actively
involved, look for the Author Birthday threads in both General and
Content Providing forums.
One little follow up note to the Banned Books week initiative. We have
located and prepared one of the banned books not yet in PG; Gustave
Flaubert's 'The Temptation of Saint Antony.' Hint: If I were you, I'd
get to the First Round soon, it's due in at any moment now! (Okay,
I'll see what I can do to hold it back a few hours!)
That's all for now! (Well, not really, but they're already sweeping
the stage.[It's amazing what you can get horses to do these days -
Ed]) Next week we'll return to our regularly scheduled broadcast and
pick up where we left off in our explorations of the DP process: Pre
Production and the Tools that buzz text preparation along.
For now...
All the best to everyone, and enjoy October!
Thierry Alberto
-------------------
Other news items this week
Project Gutenberg Website Update
Thanks to Marcello Perathoner, we now have a new browse by author
and title online. The listing is regenerated at 6:50 am (US Eastern time)
to regenerate the listing daily. Our browsing tools are used quite a bit so a
more functional and prettier one is great to have. Any suggestions or
feedback about the new search facility are most welcome.
------------------------------
Lessons in ebooks
Occasionally, I get mails asking how to go about downloading texts
from Project Gutenberg. Thanks to a new set of lessons from Candida
Martinelli, all mystery is now lifted.
Candida has put together six lessons to explain just about everything
you might need to know to get started with finding a text,
downloading, use and management, well worth a look. You can find the
lessons at:
http://home.wanadoo.nl/cecilia.mccabe/instructions.htm
------------------------------
Call to arms - The Gutenberg Bible
Guess what? My wife thinks PG has the Gutenberg Bible
online. We don't.
This _LARGE_ project will require an army of
volunteers (including me) who are willing to surf to
http://prodigi.bl.uk/gutenbg/default.asp and save the
images onto their hard-drives manually, then another
army to convert the color files to B&W so that another
army (of one) can train Abbyy Finereader to recognize
it so that we don't have to type it in (although we
_WILL_ if we have to). Then it will hit DP and go
through proofing.
An immense project but one well worth doing. They said
we couldn't/shouldn't/wouldn't, but we will.
Won't we?
Contact garvint@yahoo.com to enlist. There are no 4Fs
in _this_ army.
Ted Garvin
-------------------
Radio Gutenberg Update
http://www.radio-gutenberg.com
Radio Gutenberg is currently off the air.
If you are interested in creating a slide-show with a soundtrack
from your favourite book, or piece of literature please mail us here
at news@pglaf.org and we will pass your message on.
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Improved Service
In a bid to make the newsletter more helpful to readers who may be
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a different format to make your life a little easier. An example of
the changed listing is given below. If you would like either a daily
or weekly version of this list please email news@pglaf.org, and state
which version you require.
{Note to the unwary: this is an example.}
34 NEW ETEXTS FROM PROJECT GUTENBERG US
A Complete Grammar of Esperanto, by Ivy Kellerman Mar 2005[esperxxx.xxx]7787
The Female Gamester, by Gorges Edmond Howard Apr 2005[fmgstxxx.xxx]7840
[Subtitle: A Tragedy]
A Primary Reader, by E. Louise Smythe Apr 2005[preadxxx.xxx]7841
[Also posted: illustrated HTML, zipped only - pread10h.zip]
The Rise of Iskander, by Benjamin Disraeli Apr 2005[?riskxxx.xxx]7842
[7-bit version with non-accented characters in 7risk10.txt and 7risk10.zip]
[8-bit version with accented characters in 8risk10.txt and 8risk10.zip]
[rtf version with accented characters in 8risk10r.rtf and 8risk10r.zip]
[rtf version has numbered paragraphs; txt version has no paragraph numbers]
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3) Notes and Queries, Reviews and Features
"RALPH RASHLEIGH" BY JAMES TUCKER (1803-1866)
Geoffrey Dutton, in "The Australian Collection--Australia's Greatest
Books", remarks that "The definition of "classic" should be relevant to
both time and place. There are many books in each country's literature
that are cherished as classics in their homeland but little known
elsewhere." Hence the inclusion of "Ralph Rashleigh" in Dutton's list of
Australia's Greatest Books.
The book is a "classic" for a number of reasons: its literary merit; its
depiction of the life of a convict; the circumstances of its composition;
and the occasion of the discovery of the manuscript and subsequent
publication.
The novel relates the story of a well-educated Londoner who drifts into
petty crimes, for one of which he is tried, imprisoned, and sentenced to
death. He escapes from prison, only to be recaptured. However his
sentence is commuted and he is transported to New South Wales. During his
life in the colony he is flogged, placed in solitary confinement and
forced to endure both heat and cold without the benefit of shoes.
Still, this is not a story of hopelessness and the convicts manage to get
up a theatre and Rashleigh is later assigned as a labourer to a settler.
The adventures continue unabated, to such an extent that Dutton remarks,
"Interest in the breathless series of adventures that make up "Ralph
Rashleigh" might flag if most of them were not so clearly authentic." As
it was, the author of this work was himself a convict. Colin Roderick,
academic and writer on Australian literature, noted in a foreword to the
1952 edition of the book, that "'Ralph Rashleigh' is the "only novel of
abiding stature to have been written by a man who during all his
Australian life was never anything but a convict."
Like Rashleigh, Tucker himself was sentenced to be transported to New
South Wales for the term of his natural life, for the crime of sending a
letter threatening to (falsely) accuse his cousin, James Stanyford
Tucker, with indecently assaulting him, James Rosenberg Tucker (our
author). Tucker spent much of his time in the colony as a messenger and
clerk. On several occasions he was granted a ticket of leave only to have
it revoked each time, save the last. He died in Liverpool (N.S.W.) asylum
in 1866.
In fact, we are not absolutely certain that James Tucker is the author of
"Ralph Rashleigh", as the following story will admit. In 1920, at an
exhibition of rare books and manuscripts held by the Royal Australian
Historical Society, an elderly man "turned up" with a manuscript titled
"Ralph Rashleigh or The Life of an Exile", by Giacomo di Rosenberg" and
handed it to the president of the Society, Mr C. H. Bertie. The elderly
man, Robert Baxter, could only say that some 50 years earlier it had been
left to his wife by her father, who had it of the author 30 years before
that. Three other manuscripts were also presented at the same time. The
date written by the author, on the verso of the first page of "Ralph
Rashleigh", was 31st December, 1845.
The paper on which the manuscript was written was watermarked 1840. Other
paper in the bundle was ascertained to have come from the register of
assignment of convicts at Port Macquarie (N.S.W.), the latest dates on
those sheets being 1838. These facts, together with other evidence,
suggested that the manuscripts were genuine work from the 1840s. On the
assumption that "Ralph Rashleigh" was a disguised book of memoirs, in
1929 a re-written version of the manuscript was published in London. The
reasons for the re-writing were outlined in the publishers' note at the
beginning of the publication: "We recognized its value and interest, but
the archaic literary style of the writer made us doubt whether the book
would be acceptable to modern readers. So the manuscript was rewritten,
but with absolute fidelity to the original story."
The identity of the author of "Ralph Rashleigh" remained a mystery. Then,
in 1949, Mr Bertie "put me in possession", as Colin Roderick put it in
the foreword to the 1952 edition of "Ralph Rashleigh", "of all he knew
about the manuscript. Intrigued by its obvious authenticity and moved by
the obscure fate of its author, I was persuaded not to let the pursuit of
that worthy (sic) stop until I had established his identity."
Unfortunately, for copyright reasons, we cannot include in the ebook of
"Ralph Rashleigh" the complete foreword, by Colin Roderick, to the 1952
edition. However, Roderick goes on to detail how he was able to ascertain
that James Tucker was almost certainly the author. After two years,
building upon the knowledge that the paper upon which the manuscript was
written came from the penal settlement at Port Macquarie, Roderick
recounts:
"On the evening of 26 July 1951 I was looking through the 1846 inward
correspondence of William Nairn Gray to the Colonial Secretary. A file of
letters dealt with several complaints against Gray, one of which was that
he had misappropriated convict labour to build a race-course and to
enlarge his own garden for profit. To refute the charges he enclosed a
plan of the trifling alterations to his garden, and another of the mighty
public works he had performed.
"These plans really gave the solution to the problem. Not only were they
in the same calligraphy as the title pages of the Rashleigh manuscripts,
but they were signed with the amateur architect's name, James Tucker.
Several pages attached to them were in the same handwriting as the
manuscript of 'Ralph Rashleigh.'"
Roderick provides other evidence to corroborate his contention that
Tucker was the author of "Ralph Rashleigh". For example Tucker, in a
postscript to his threatening letter to his cousin, mentioned earlier,
directed the cousin to "address to me Mr Rosenberg, the Bell, Exeter
Street, Strand." Further, Tucker's criminal charge was directed to "James
Rosenberg Tucker", and at Port Jackson, Tucker's name was entered as
"James Tucker, or Rosenberg." Rosenberg was, as mentioned earlier, the
name entered on the "Ralph Rashleigh" manuscript.Some commentators,
however, have argued that Tucker merely copied the manuscript. In an
exchange in the "Bulletin" December 1952 to February 1953, M. H. Ellis
argued that Tucker was a copyist whose known writing, for example a
letter written in 1826, does not reveal the qualities required of the
author of "Ralph Rashleigh". Roderick, though, seems to have the weight
of evidence.
In the foreword to the 1952 edition of "Ralph Rashleigh", Colin Roderick
goes on further to note the "unfortunate introduction [to the 1929
edition] by the late Earl of Birkenhead. Like the editor of that text,
Birkenhead was misled into believing the book was a memoir entirely and
the text was mangled and falsified to fit this preconceived theory."
Birkenhead set forth a diatribe in favour of maintaining the death
penalty, using as evidence to support his claim, the "memoir" of
Rashleigh, a person who "had the advantage of a decent upbringing, but,
out of weakness of character, adopted what seemed the easier life of
crime at an early age." It was fortunate for Birkenhead that, by 1952
when the verbatim edition of what turned out to be a novel was published,
he was "late" as it may have saved him from acute embarrassment.
At Project Gutenberg of Australia will be found both the "first authentic
popular edition" created from the original manuscript, first published in
1952, together with the heavily edited 1929 edition (including the
publishers' note and introduction by Birkenhead). The 1929 edition is
now, of course, just a curiosity.
I trust that you will agree that this is a "classic" little story about a
classic work of Australian literature--"Ralph Rashleigh, The Life of an
Exile" by James Tucker. Both ebooks are located at
(http://gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty.html.
Col Choat
-------------------
This Issue's Quiz: Science Fiction Classics!
Match the titles with the first lines (you can always
cheat by visiting the URL).
[We have two newsletter smarty-pants awards waiting for your correct answers-Ed]
===Titles===
1. Looking Backward / Edward Bellamy
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext96/lkbak10.txt
2. The Poison Belt / Arthur Conan Coyle
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext94/poisn10.txt
3. The War of the Worlds / H.G. Wells
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext92/warw11.txt
4. The Land That Time Forgot / Edgar Rice Burroughs
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext96/tlttf11.txt
5. From the Earth to the Moon / Jules Verne
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext93/moon10.txt
6. A Princess of Mars / Edgar Rice Burroughs
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext93/pmars10.txt
7. The Time Machine / H.G. Wells
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext92/timem11.txt
8. Lost Continent / C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext95/lostc10.txt
9. The Lost World / Arthur Conan Doyle
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext94/lostw10.txt
10. 20000 Leagues Under the Seas / Jules Verne
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext01/2000010a.txt
===First Lines===
a. It is imperative that now at once, while these stupendous events
are still clear in my mind, I should set them down with that
exactness of detail which time may blur.
b. It must have been a little after three o'clock in the afternoon
that it happened--the afternoon of June 3rd, 1916.
c. I am a very old man; how old I do not know. Possibly I am
a hundred, possibly more; but I cannot tell because I have
never aged as other men, nor do I remember any childhood.
d. Mr. Hungerton, her father, really was the most tactless person
upon earth,--a fluffy, feathery, untidy cockatoo of a man,
perfectly good-natured, but absolutely centered upon his own
silly self.
e. The Time Traveller (for so it will be convenient to speak of
him) was expounding a recondite matter to us.
f. The year 1866 was marked by a bizarre development, an unexplained
and downright inexplicable phenomenon that surely no one has forgotten.
g. I first saw the light in the city of Boston in the year 1857.
h. No one would have believed in the last years of the
nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly
and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as
mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their
various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps
almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scru-
tinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a
drop of water.
i. During the War of the Rebellion, a new and influential club was
established in the city of Baltimore in the State of Maryland.
j. We were both of us not a little stiff as the result of
sleeping out in the open all that night, for even in Grand Canary
the dew-fall and the comparative chill of darkness are not to be
trifled with.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Credits
Thanks this time go to Brett and George for the numbers and
booklists. Tonya, Thierry, Gali, Col, Greg for the news updates,
Michael, and Larry Wall. Entertainment for the workers provided by the
Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers.
pgweekly_2003_10_01_part_2.txt
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