Hot off the Press

Semper ad Meliora (Always towards better things)

This is the second in a series of posts celebrating Distributed Proofreaders’ 15th Anniversary.

6000 For its 6,000th title, DP submitted the two volumes of The Journal of Sir Walter Scott. This diary of the famed Scottish novelist runs from 1825 to 1832. Two days after he started the diary, Scott expressed concerns about the financial stability of his publisher, in which he was a significant investor. The following year, the publisher failed, leaving Scott with some £130,000 of debt (the equivalent of about £9.5 million today). Scott then spent the next seven years — the rest of his life — churning out more novels in his bestselling Waverley series, as well as other writings, to pay off this massive debt. You can find a blog review of it here.

7000 On June 23, 2005, DP contributed three books, each in a different language, to celebrate its 7,000th title and the language diversity of its work:

• Opúsculos por Alexandre Herculano, tomo I (Pamphlets by Alexandre Herculano, vol. 1) (1873, Portuguese). The Portuguese novelist and historian Alexandre Herculano introduced the historical novel to Portugal. His pamphlets covered such diverse subjects as “Theatre, Ethics, and Censorship,” “The Economic System,” and more.
• Viage al Parnaso (Trip to Parnassus) by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1784 edition, Spanish). This poem by the author of Don Quixote is a satire of early 17th-Century Spanish politics.
• Leabhráin an Irisleabhair-III (Booklet of the Journal-III) (1903, Irish). DP volunteers worked on this as a Special Day project for St. Patrick’s Day. It was published as part of a series of extracts from the main Journal of the Conradh na Gaeilge (The Gaelic League), and consists of short pieces designed for beginners in reading Irish.

W.E.B. Du Bois

8000 February 8, 2006, saw the 8,000th title from DP, The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade to the United States of America, 1638-1870, by W. E. B. Du Bois. Du Bois was a leading African-American scholar and activist. This, his first book, published in 1896, was a revised version of his 1895 doctoral dissertation at Harvard University, where he was the first African-American student to earn a Ph.D. degree. Du Bois helped found the NAACP in 1909. He published over one hundred articles and essays, and authored twenty-one books, including two novels.

9000 On September 4, 2006, DP again offered multiple books for a milestone, with “a trinity of diversity” to celebrate its 9,000th title. This was represented by:

• Kelly Miller’s History of the World War for Human Rights, by Kelly Miller. This 1919 treatise by a noted African-American mathematician and author “sets forth the black man’s part in the world’s war with the logical sequence of facts and the brilliant power of statement for which the author is famous,” according to the publisher’s introduction. It contains numerous historic photographs.
• Poems, by Christina G. Rossetti. British poet Christina Rossetti, sister of the equally famous Pre-Raphaelite poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti, wrote children’s, devotional, and romantic poems. She is best known for “Goblin Market,” “Remember,” and the lyrics to the Christmas carol “In the Bleak Mid-Winter,” all of which appear in this 1906 collection.
• Hey Diddle Diddle and Baby Bunting, illustrated by Randolph Caldecott. This 1882 picture book of two nursery rhymes, illustrated by the famed British artist, is a lovely example of Caldecott’s work. The prestigious Caldecott Medal, awarded to the most distinguished American picture book for children, was named after him.

10000 For the 10,000th title milestone on March 9, 2007, DP offered a collection of fifteen books:

• Species Plantarum, Sections I-III: Monandria, Diandria and Triandria, by Carolus Linnaeus (Carl von Linné) (1753, Latin) – the first part of the great Swedish botanist’s groundbreaking treatise on plants.
• Agriculture for Beginners, by Charles William Burkett, Frank Lincoln Stevens, and Daniel Harvey Hill (1914) – a textbook on farming for the young.
• Le Marchand de Venise, by William Shakespeare (1862 edition, French) – The Merchant of Venice, translated into French by the historian and statesman François Guizot.
• The Shanty Book, Part I, Sailor Shanties, by Richard Runciman Terry (1921) – a collection of English sea shanties, with midi files you can listen to.
• The Annals of the Cakchiquels – an 1885 English translation of Guatemalan Mayan history and legends, set down in the Kaqchikel Mayan language by Francisco Hernández Arana Xajilá (fl. 1582).
• Encyclopedia of Needlework, by Thérèse de Dillmont – English edition of the 1886 French needlework bible, lavishly illustrated; reviewed by Hot off the Press here.
• R. Caldecott’s First Collection of Pictures and Songs, by Randolph Caldecott – with lovely pictures by a master of children’s-book illustration.
• Sylva, or, A Discourse of Forest-Trees (vol. I), by John Evelyn (1664) – the classic work on forestry.
• Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 159, October 27, 1920 – an issue of the classic British humor magazine.
• Heimatlos, by Johanna Spyri (1890, German) – two illustrated stories for children.
• Heidi by Johanna Spyri – an English translation of the classic Swiss children’s novel, in an illustrated “gift edition” of 1919.
• Triplanetary, by E.E. Smith (1934) – science fiction by “the father of space opera.”
• Como eu atravessei Àfrica (v. II), by Alexandre Alberto da Rocha de Serpa Pinto (a.k.a. Serpa Pinto) (1881, Portuguese) – the Portuguese explorer’s account of his trek through Africa.
• Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1886-1887, ed. John Wesley Powell – an account of the progress of the Bureau of American Ethnology in its anthropological, archaeological, and linguistic studies of Native Americans.
• Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves (vol. XIII, Oklahoma), by the Works Project Administration Federal Writers’ Project (1941) – first-person accounts of the lives of former slaves in the U.S., transcribed by DP volunteers from images of typewritten manuscripts.

Next: The celebration continues with milestones 11,000 to 15,000.

These 15th Anniversary posts were contributed by WebRover, a DP volunteer.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 6th, 2015 at 12:01 am and is filed under Project Gutenberg, Special Day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.