Pgweekly 2003 11 05 Part 2

The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter 5th November 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 3) Notes and Queries, Reviews and Features Quiz 4) Mailing list information Editorial Hello, Phew! What a week. Time to put the scary costumes away and get back to work. What do you mean I'm still wearing mine? I always look like this! A bit of a special this week from Thierry as it's a year since the great Slashdot of 2002 at DP, and what changes we have seen, not just at DP but even here at PG. Happy reading, Alice send email to the newsletter editor at: [email protected] Founding editor: Michael Hart [email protected] Newsletter editor: Alice Wood [email protected] Project Gutenberg CEO: Greg Newby [email protected] Project Gutenberg website: http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/ Project Gutenberg Newsletter website: http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/newsletter Radio Gutenberg: http://www.radio-gutenberg.com Distributed Proofreaders: http://www.pgdp.net Newsletter and mailing list subscriptions: http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/subs.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------============= [ SUBMIT A NEW EBOOK FOR COPYRIGHT CLEARANCE ]============== If you have a book you would like to confirm is in the public domain in the US, and therefore suitable for Project Gutenberg, please do the following: 1. Check whether we have the eBook already. Look in http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/GUTINDEX.ALL which is updated weekly. (The searchable catalog at http://www.gutenberg.net lags behind by several months) 2. Check the "in progress" list to see whether someone is already working on the eBook. Sometimes, books are listed as in progress for

years - if so, email David Price (his address is on the list) to ask for contact information for the person working on the book. The "in progress" list: http://www.dprice48.freeserve.co.uk/GutIP.html 3. If the book seems to be a good candidate (pre-1923 publication date, or 1923-1988 published in the US without a copyright notice), submit scans of the title page and verso page (even if the verso is blank) to: http://beryl.ils.unc.edu/copy.html You'll hear back within a few days. ---------------------------------------------------------------------2) News and Comment Other news items this week Newsletter website Updates galore this week, stories being added some of the time. Check out the indepth analysis of the Australian copyright extension saga, and read up on some of the features we have carried in the newsletter. ---------------------------PG/DP Shop That's all I'm saying, watch this space for more details and start saving those monetary units. ------------------Distributed Proofreaders Update This is a historically significant week for Distributed Proofreaders. You may not be aware of this yet for it was not covered on the BBC or CNN, nor was it picked up by any of the major daily papers. Consider it a PG Newsletter exclusive. In fact, so important is this week that the mid-section is going out in an extended Late Edition. Now before you go wondering what you might have missed, remember we did say it was a 'historic' week. To behold the full majesty of significance surrounding us at present requires that we step back a little and attempt to view as much of the DP time line as possible. Okay, so maybe just the past year for now! A new era has definitely begun for Distributed Proofreaders. This was not planned to be a demarcation, but a clear one has settled in right before our eyes. If you are a daily visitor to the site, it is likely that you felt the sea change moving in over the past several weeks. If this is includes you, then please stay with us as we explore the past twelve months for those who are occasional visitors or recently joined members. Before the beginning, let us set a marker in the present, for that is

where we will circle back to. It is a landmark impossible to miss; last Friday's Halloween celebration and the collaborative 'Big Climb.' In last week's column we gave everyone ample notice, and it was clear from the line at the door that the word went out. I must say, the party wasted no time getting started. From Midnight on Thursday the place started rockin', and it did not slow down until well past Midnight on Saturday morning. I can't name for you everyone who was there...they all wore masks...and some people switched every hour. Appropriate content begin dancing through the rounds in pumpkin colored costumes within minutes of the witching hour...there were short stories by Bram Stoker and Alexandre Dumas, Curiosites infernales were seen. The Centaur by Blackwood made an appearance as did La vampire, who was still hangin' out in R2 last night refusing to believe the party's over. Juliet went home with the prize for 'Scariest Book of All' for Diseases of the Horse's Foot. I'm still having nightmares. Thanks must go out to Dr. Gutenstein, and to all the content providers and behind the scenes crafters who made the event as much fun as it was. The highlight of all was the 'Big Climb.' If you missed it, you have my sincere condolences, because it really was something to see! There was a steady pace to the climb right from the start, but it did not really get exciting until late in the afternoon, when we started to see over 1,000 pages an hour being proofed. The existing high, which is what we set out to surpass was over 15,000 pages proofed in a single day. We entered the challenge in the spirt of the day with more fun in mind than seriousness of purpose. After all, the highest proofing day of 2003 was still less than 10,000 pages. In the final six hours it became certain that we actually had a chance to set a newrecord, and to go a good stretch beyond. The original target for everyone was to match or slightly pass their own best proofing day. With this in mind, people had committed to a set number of pages they would complete for the day. Most everyone went beyond their pledge, and many people doubled and tripled what they set out to do. By the final three hours the pace had quickened and the 15,000 drew near, and then with just a passing wave, Oct 31st flew on by Nov 8th and rose another 3,000 pages, opening up a whole new era in DP history. Friends and family members are still at a loss to explain the behavior last Friday of the members who were on-line when the new record was set. To stretch a worn out cliche that just happens to fit. . . You really had to be there!' If you weren't with us, there's always the many forum threads from the 31st that will bring back a sense of what it was like. For those who were a part of the climb, the memories will linger for a long time to come. For those who have been members for more than a year, Friday night rekindled existing memories of another day, and another mountain of pages that were proofed by a small and enthusiastic band. That of course, leads us back in time nearly a year to this day. The timing of these two grand days was the inspiration for this special issue of the column. This upcoming weekend marks an important anniversary for DP. One year ago on November 8th a small piece appeared among the daily discourse on Slashdot. Within hours the ranks of registered proofers began to

grow...and grow...and grow. That day changed DP fundamentally like a plot point in a classic novel. November 8th is not an official holiday at Distributed Proofreaders, but it should be. Not so much because of the large crowds that came initially, nor the high page counts. It should be a day of reverence for those members who came and saw and stayed. Next time you are in the forum pay attention to the Date Joined beneath the poster's name. Note how many arrived either on Nov' 8, 2002 or within the following week to ten days. Among this group you will find people who have contributed immeasurably to DP, including two of our largest content providers, a legion of high volume proofers, including some of the Top Ten, code authors and site maintainers, nearly all the tool developers and even our own SA Bill Keir. Whenever the story of DP is told, that Slashdot November will always be remembered as a milestone in the project's early history, yet not solely for the high count numbers to which it is often anchored. The greatest contribution of November 2002 is the quality and character of the people who came to stay and add something uniquely their own to DP. As we look back over the past year, it begins to seem that the greater part of 2003 was spent adapting to new size and potential of the membership. We have all been learning, growing and sharing ideas that over time came materialized into concrete results. Through the unfolding of that process we have managed to send over 1,500 completed books to PG with an equal number at some stage on the DP server. There were times in 2003 when we seemed to loose our forward momentum and even begin to drift apart. But somehow something always came along and drew us all back together; a mention by Slashdot in July, a spontaneous run for a daily goal that reminded us that we were a collective effort after all. Somewhere towards the third quarter of the year we began to find ourselves together more often than not. Within this same time frame several sub-projects and initiatives that had been developing through the year began to take on more of a concrete and unified form. It is no longer possible to point to any few specifics and say 'that's what made the difference', but the DP of today is very different than the DP of six months ago. This transformation is measured by strong increases in output and quality at all stages of production. What brought about this deep change then, if not some particular event or development? I have been thinking about this question a great deal in the past week. From today, I believe it can be attributed to two primary factors. The first is arguably the recent synchronization of the many tools and technical innovations that have been evolving through the past year. Space and time do not allow me to cite them all...and individually they may not seem like much. Together the improvements to the site code, the steady evolution to the proofing process, such as the queue organization and enhancements to the project release system, added to the impressive set of tools now available to assist the pre and post production processes. All of these have become integrated into an effective system within the past few months.

The second primary cause, in my view, is a little less obvious, but of an equal import. I believe that what we have come to possess in the later part of this year is the collective sense of who we are in our dedication to the work of DP. I have been reading and watching very closely of late both in on-site and off-site exchanges. One thing stands out very clearly, time and time again; this work, which is very distinct to DP, has become a significant part of our lives. What we do here, both as individuals and in collaboration, is held very high amongst our personal values. We don't discuss this often in the forum, except when a new member makes note of it, and then for a while we are reminded of what keeps us coming back. Maybe the reason we don't discuss it often is that we have come to accept this as a group. Once we log in to DP we know we are among a kindred mind-set. We all know why we are here, and it is widely recognized that the work we do is no mere idle pastime. We believe it makesa difference in the world. What has happened to us recently is that we have uncovered and experienced a new found dynamism when we give ourselves collectively to a specific end that we hold to be of significance. This is the true service of the Daily Page goals; they call hidden strengths from our inner depths and push us to always do better than we might just normally settle for. They are more important than the playfullness with which we approach them may evidence. Times will come when there are urgent and maybe important needs that require us to reach up and stretch on some short notice. By having found our sense of self as a working group, we will not hesitate to take on such challenges, and we will not fail to accomplish them. It is a faith based work ethic at DP...the same is true for the larger PG community. The great cathedrals rose up on the dedications to such an ethic. A world library is rising up on this one. So those are my theories on how we manage to average 6,500-7,000 pages a day without breaking into a sweat, and how we can post process 325+ books in a month. Maybe what matters above any reason why is the fact that we are doing it in the first place. We are nearing a new year now. The holiday season will soon be upon us and there's no doubt that we will all have some time away from DP while we enjoy the affairs of our personal lives. It does seem to be good timing after all that has been achieved in recent weeks. We will begin 2004 fresh, strong and ready to complete the most challenging of projects. PG has reached the long awaited milestone of 10,000 titles and new horizons are nowfocused upon. DP is ready and fit for such new vistas within this new and exciting era. If the past year revealed to us who we are collectively, the year ahead seems ready to show us what we are truly capable of. Perhaps the greatest lesson October taught us, is that on this account, who we may yet become, we still have very much to discover. I look forward to sharing the journey with you! I believe many of us will be togetherfor a long while to come yet. As Big Bill often says..."We have many years of work out there ahead of us." Let give the best within ourselves to those years! With this week's expanded column we are going to give you a taste of some new features that will be appearing regularly. One of these is a spotlight on unique and special DP accomplishments. Now there are no hard rules here and there will be no judgmental limits applied. The features will justify inclusion on their own. Now we will try to make this a little surprising, so you may not actually be aware of the

nature of the 'accomplishment' until we focus upon it. That's the main reason why we have decided to add this element. Maybe the motto here could be 'credit where it is due, not where it is recognized.' For the first feature we will start with something I am personally very familiar with, and which you will be in the days and weeks to come. It is called 'The Project Gutenberg John Keats Collection.' It has a nice ring to it, don't you think? Expect several more authors to receive such designation in the near future as we get to them. On the whole, the framing of an authors entire catalog, once it is available, is one component in the ongoing upgrade of the PG index. The Keats Collection deserves special mention here because it is a purely DP accomplishment. In fact, the entire Keats library; three volumes of his verse; all of his letters and two very extensive biographies, was located, scanned and prepared for DP by one person; Jonathan Ingram. You most likely know him as Jon. Earlier this year upon learning that the body of Keats' work was not available in PG, Jon set out to right this imbalance with firm determination. It would not be the last Romantic poet Mr. Ingram would single handily escort to the PG library. Our Jon has managed the entire works of Byron, Coleridge, Southey, Wordsworth, and many other poets outside the Romantic era. Perhaps this is a good place to mention that Jon joined up with DP on November 8, 2003. I know a little bit about this collection because I adopted the entire series for the post production phase. The logic behind that decision was on one hand a gesture of respect to what Jon had done, and on the other, an intention to see that the set of titles would be sent to PG within a consistent style, along with some added features. These works are near to completion now and will begin their passage to Verification beginning this week. Once the set is completely available in PG, we will remind you within the newsletter and there will be a fixed link posted on the archive site alongwith PG Collection authors. As part of this week's Featured Accomplishment we will be including some samples from the Letters of John Keats and William Rossetti's biography. These will be complimented with an author profile by our own Gali Sirkis. For anyone who would still like to proof a little Keats, watch for the upcoming French translation of Saint Agnes which was just recently located and should be available just in time to join the collection. There is a lot of news within this week that I have not even touched upon so far. It would be an injustice to attempt to squeeze it all in effectively in this last paragraph or two. Next week, when the column returns to normal size, I will explore some important day to day developments that tend to serve as the glue which holds DP together through all manner of weather. One thing that deserves mention going into next week is that Tuesday the 11th, which is recognized as Armistice Day or Veterans Day and by other names elsewhere will be honored at DP by several content providers who are preparing appropriate titles for the proofing rounds. If you would like to contribute a book or two, please visit the Content Providers forum or contact one of the System Administrators. If you would like to contribute by proofing some texts, all you need to do is log in at any time during the day or

night. A diverse selection of books will be available for release. To everyone who joined up with DP in those first wild days of the great Slashdot rush, a very Happy Anniversary!! Thank you all for staying and helping to make Distributed Proofreaders what it is today! Until next week... Thierry Alberto ------------------Radio Gutenberg Update http://www.radio-gutenberg.org Two channels of broadcasting are available, but what for the subtle change in the web address, that's org not com. channel 1 - Sherlock Holmes "The Sign of Four" channel 2 - Robert Sheckley's "Bad Medicine" Both are high quality live readings from the collection. Jon and I are working on a new service for Project Gutenberg to create an audio book on demand from any of the 10,000+ books in the collection. This service will be available at http://www.radio-gutenberg.org shortly. Anyone needing an audio book of a gutenberg book will be able to create it for themselves on the web, right when they have the need for it. We may ask for testers sometime in November. Mike E ---------------------------------------------------------------------Improved Service In a bid to make the newsletter more helpful to readers who may be using screen reading software. We are able to offer the booklisting in a different format to make your life a little easier. If you would like a weekly version of this list please email [email protected], and state which version you require. ---------------------------------------------------------------------QUICK WAYS TO MAKE A DONATION TO PROJECT GUTENBERG A. Send a check or money order to: Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation 809 North 1500 West

Salt Lake City, UT 84116 B. Donate by credit card online NetworkForGood: http://www.guidestar.org/partners/networkforgood/donate.jsp?ein=64-6221541 or PayPal to "[email protected]": https://www.paypal.com /xclick/business=donate%40gutenberg.net&item_name=Donate+to+Gutenberg Project Gutenberg's success is due to the hard work of thousands of volunteers over more than 30 years. Your donations make it possible to support these volunteers, and pay our few employees to continue the creation of free electronic texts. We accept credit cards, checks and money transfers from any country, in any currency. Donations are made to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (PGLAF). PGLAF is approved as a charitable 501(c)(3) organization by the US Internal Revenue Service, and has the Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN) 64-6221541. For more information, including several other ways to donate, go to http://www.gutenberg.net or email [email protected] ---------------------------------------------------------------------3) Notes and Queries, Reviews and Features John Keats - a short biography John Keats started his short life at the end of October 208 years ago - the boy that has died at the age of 25 and who's name (often combined by dash to Shelly) became a symbol for romantic poetry in English. This was a life of quintessence - as for many romantics, who can turn the statue to the living girl by the power of their imagination and to die from the broken heart when she refuses their love ... During these only 25 years he's got everything that we are hardly gathering during our 80 - joys and sufferings in plenty, without holding back. His poetic works are beautiful and reflect true passion and real thoughts behind each word. This is the main point of Keats (besides the his talant of course) - he is very honest even in hesitation or self-doubts. Eliot wrote that Keats was not so big in poetry as he was in epistolary genre (Eliot �. S. The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism. Harvard Univ. Press, 1933, p. 91-93., it might be right or wrong, however his letters, carefully saved by his friends and relatives, have same touch of genius and honesty. On PG besides selected poems you have Lamia - excellent parabola about the role of imagination and physical joys in the life of real poet (Jan 2001 Lamia, by John Keats [Poetry/Poem] [John Keats #1][lamiaxxx.xxx] 2490) I didn't find Keats correspondense in GUTindex, however you can read selected letters on http://englishhistory.net/keats/contents.html

and even may be submit it one day to the project.[See Thierry's column for further details - Ed] Sweet romantic dreams to all of us! Gali Sirkis P.S. Keats was only one of many others famous poets that died at the age when others are only starting. Which didn't prevent from him to write brilliant and mature poetry. In the two-year-old hit of the Broadway stages "The Proof" they were speaking about math - that genius mathematical insights can be reached only in the youth. The fruits of youth - poetry and math ... will be continued in the next newsletter. ------------------Excerpt From: LIFE OF JOHN KEATS. BY WILLIAM MICHAEL ROSSETTI. - 1887 Apart from his own special capability for poetry, Keats had a mind both active and capacious. The depth, pregnancy, and incisiveness, of many of the remarks in his letters, glancing along a considerable range of subject-matter, are highly noticeable. If some one were to take the pains of extracting and classifying them, he would do a good service to readers. It does not appear, however, that Keats took much interest in any kind of knowledge which could not be made applicable or subservient to the purposes of poetry. Many will remember the anecdote, proper to Haydon's "immortal dinner" (December 1817), of Keats's joining with Charles Lamb in denouncing Sir Isaac Newton for having destroyed all the poetry of the rainbow by reducing it to the prismatic colours; the whole company had to drink "Newton's health, and confusion to mathematics." This was a freak, yet not so mere a freak but that the poet--in one of his most elaborated and heedful compositions, "Lamia"--couldrevert to the same idea--

"Do not all charms fly At the mere touch of cold philosophy? There was an awful rainbow once in heaven: We know her woof, her texture--she is given In the dull catalogue of common things. Philosophy will clip an angel's wings, Conquer all mysteries by rule and line, Empty the haunted air and gnom=E8d mine, Unweave a rainbow." In a letter to his brother, December 1817, Keats observes:--

"The excellence of every art is its intensity, capable of making all disagreeables evaporate from their being in close relationship with beauty and truth. Examine 'King Lear,' and you will find his exemplified throughout.... It struck me what quality went to form a man of achievement, especially in literature, and which Shakespeare possessed so enormously. I mean negative capability; that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason. Coleridge, for instance, would let go by a fine isolated verisimilitude caught from the penetralium of mystery, from being incapable of remaining content with half-knowledge. This, pursued through volumes, would perhaps take us no further than this: that with a great poet the sense of beauty overcomes every other consideration, or rather obliterates all consideration." Keats did not very often in his letters remark upon the work of his poetic contemporaries. We have just read a reference to Coleridge. In another letter addressed to Haydon, January 1818, he shows that his admiration of Wordsworth's "Excursion" was great, coupling that poem with Haydon's pictures, and with "Hazlitt's depth of taste," as "three things to rejoice at in this age." Soon afterwards, February 1818, while "Endymion" was passing through the press, he wrote to Mr. Taylor:-"In poetry I have a few axioms, and you will see how far I am from their centre. 1st, I think poetry should surprise by a fine excess, and not by singularity; it should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance. 2nd, Its touches of beauty should never be half-way, thereby making the reader breathless instead of content. The rise, the progress, the setting, of imagery, should, like the sun, come natural to him, shine over him, and set soberly although in magnificence, leaving him in the luxury of twilight. But it is easier to think what poetry should be than to write it And this leads me to another axiom--That, if poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree, it had better not come at all." Keats held that the melody of verse is founded on the adroit management of open and close vowels. He thought that vowels can be as skillfully combined and interchanged as differing notes of music, and that monotony should only be allowed when it subserves some special purpose. The following, from a letter to Mr. Woodhouse, October 1818 (soon after the abusive reviews had appeared in Blackwoods Magazine and The Quarterly), is a remarkable piece of self-analysis. As we read it, we should bear in mind what Haydon said of Keats's want of decision of character. I am not indeed clear that Keats has here pourtrayed himself with marked accuracy. It may appear that he ascribes to himself too much of absorption into the object or the personage which he contemplates; whereas it might, with fully as much truth, be advanced that he was wont to assimilate the personage or the object to himself. I greatly doubt whether in Keats's poems we see the object or the personage the clearer because his faculty transpires through them: rather, we see the object or the personage through the haze of Keats. His range was not extremely extensive (whatever it might possibly have become, with a longer lease of life), nor was his personality by any means occulted. But in any event his statement here

is of great importance as showing what he thought of the poetic phase of mind and working. "As to the poetical character itself (I mean that sort of which, if I am anything, I am a member--that sort distinguished from the Wordsworthian or egotistical sublime, which is a thing per se, and stands alone), it is not itself--it has no self. It is everything, and nothing--it has no character. It enjoys light, and shade. It lives in gusto, be it foul or fair, high or low, rich or poor, mean or elevated--it has as much delight in conceiving an Iago as an Imogen. What shocks the virtuous philosopher delights the chameleon poet. It does no harm from its relish of the dark side of things, any more than from its taste for the bright one, because they both end in speculation. A poet is the most unpoetical of anything in existence, because he has no identity: he is continually in for, and filling, some other body. The sun, the moon, the sea, and men and women who are creatures of impulse, are poetical, and have about them an unchangeable attribute: the poet has none, no identity. He is certainly the most unpoetical of all God's creatures. If then he has no self, and if I am a poet, where is the wonder that I should say I would write no more? Might I not at that very instant have been cogitating on the characters of Saturn and Ops? It is a wretched thing to confess, but it is a very fact, that not one word I ever utter can be taken for granted as an opinion growing out of my identical nature. How can it when I have _no_ nature? When I am in a room with people, if I ever am free from speculating on creations of my own brain, then not myself goes home to myself, but the identity of every one in the room begins to press upon me [so] that I am in a very little time annihilated. Not only among men; it would be the same in a nursery of children." Elsewhere Keats says, November 1817: "Nothing startles me beyond the moment. The setting sun will always set me to rights; or if a sparrow come before my window, I take part in its existence, and pick about the gravel." ----------------------------Excerpt From: LETTERS OF JOHN KEATS TO HIS FAMILY AND FRIENDS EDITED BY SIDNEY COLVIN TO FANNY KEATS. Oxford, September 10, 1817. My dear Fanny--Let us now begin a regular question and answer--a little pro and con; letting it interfere as a pleasant method of my coming at your favorite little wants and enjoyments, that I may meet them in a way befitting a brother. We have been so little together since you have been able to reflect on

things that I know not whether you prefer the History of King Pepin to Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress--or Cinderella and her glass slipper to Moore's Almanack. However in a few Letters I hope I shall be able to come at that and adapt my scribblings to your Pleasure. You must tell me about all you read if it be only six Pages in a Week and this transmitted to me every now and then will procure you full sheets of Writing from me pretty frequently.--This I feel as a necessity for we ought to become intimately acquainted, in order that I may not only, as you grow up love you as my only Sister, but confide in you as my dearest friend. When I saw you last I told you of my intention of going to Oxford and 'tis now a Week since I disembark'd from his Whipship's Coach the Defiance in this place. I am living in Magdalen Hall on a visit to a young Man with whom I have not been long acquainted, but whom I like very much--we lead very industrious lives--he in general Studies and I in proceeding at a pretty good rate with a Poem which I hope you will see early in the next year.--Perhaps you might like to know what I am writing about. I will tell you. Many Years ago there was a young handsome Shepherd who fed his flocks on a Mountain's Side called Latmus--he was a very contemplative sort of a Person and lived solitary among thetrees and Plains little thinking that such a beautiful Creature as the Moon was growing mad in Love with him.--However so it was; and when he was asleep on the Grass she used to come down from heaven and admire him excessively for a long time; and at last could not refrain from carrying him away in her arms to the top of that high Mountain Latmus while he was a dreaming--but I daresay you have read this and all the other beautiful Tales which have come down from the ancient times of that beautiful Greece. If you have not let me know and I will tell you more at large of others quite as delightful. This Oxford I have no doubt is the finest City in the world--it is full of old Gothic buildings--Spires--towers--Quadrangles--Cloisters--Groves, etc., and is surrounded with more clear streams than ever I saw together. I take a Walk by the Side of one of them every Evening and, thank God, we have not had a drop of rain these many days. I had a long and interesting Letter from George, cross lines by a short one from Tom yesterday dated Paris. They both send their loves to you. Like most Englishmen they feel a mighty preference for everything English--the French Meadows, the trees, the People, the Towns, the Churches, the Books, the everything--although they may be in themselves good: yet when put in comparison with our green Island they all vanish like Swallows in October. They have seen Cat hedrals, Manuscripts, Fountains, Pictures, Tragedy, Comedy,--with other things you may by chance meet with in this Country such as Washerwomen, Lamplighters, Turnpikemen, Fishkettles, Dancing Masters, Kettle drums, Sentry Boxes, Rocking Horses, etc.--and, now they have taken them over a set of boxing-gloves. I have written to George and requested him, as you wish I should, to write to you. I have been writing very hard lately, even till an utter incapacity came on, and I feel it now about my head: so you must not mind a little out-of-the-way sayings--though by the bye were my brain as clear as a bell I think I should have a little propensity thereto. I shall stop here till I have finished the 3d Book of my Story; which I hope will be aucomplish'd in at most three Weeks from to-day--about which time you shall see me. How do you like Miss Taylor's essays in Rhyme--I just look'd into the Book and it appeared to me suitable to you--especially since I remember your liking for

those pleasant little things the Original Poems--the essays are the more mature production of the same hand. While I was speaking about France it occurred to me to speak a few Words on their Language--it is perhaps the poorest one ever spoken since the jabbering in the Towel of Babel, and when you come to know that the real use and greatness of a Tongue is to be referred to its Literature--you will be astonished to find how very inferior it is to our native Speech.--I wish the Italian would supersede French in every school throughout the Country, for that is full of real Poetry and Romance of a kind more fitted for the Pleasure of Ladies than perhaps our own.--It seems that the only end to be gained in acquiring French is the immense accomplishment of speaking it--it is none at all--a most lamentable mistake indeed. Italian indeed would sound most musically from Lips which had began to pronounce it as early as French is crammed down our Mouths, as if we were young Jack-daws at the mercy of an overfeeding Schoolboy. Now Fanny you must write soon--and write all you think about, never mind what--only let me have a good deal of your writing--You need not do it all at once--be two or three or four days about it, and let it be a diary of your little Life. You will preserve all my Letters and I will secure yours--and thus in the course of time we shall each of us have a good Bundle--which, hereafter, when things may have strangely altered and God knows what happened, we may read over together and look with pleasure on times past--that now are to come. Give my Respects to the Ladies--and so my dear Fanny I am ever Your most affectionate Brother JOHN. If you direct--Post Office, Oxford--your Letter will be brought to me. ------------------This Issue's Quiz: Ghosts & Goblins! Answers to the Ghosts and Goblins Quiz: Shame on you, I said shame on you! Tonya goes to all that effort and not one entrant! Maybe you were all out scaring people or hiding behind your sofas, I am tempted not to give you the answers now (sulk). Well, go on then. But I'm giving the spooky pants award to Tonya for her fine efforts at putting the quiz together in the first place. Alice 1. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde / Robert Louis Stevenson http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext92/hyde10.txt c. Mr. Utterson the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance, that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary, and yet somehow lovable. 2. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow / Washington Irving http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext92/sleep11.txt

g. In the bosom of one of those spacious coves which indent the eastern shore of the Hudson, at that broad expansion of the river denominated by the ancient Dutch navigators the Tappan Zee, and where they always prudently shortened sail and implored the protection of St. Nicholas when they crossed, there lies a small market town or rural port, which by some is called Greensburgh, but which is more generally and properly known by the name of Tarry Town. 3. A Christmas Carol / Charles Dickens http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext92/carol13.txt a. Marley was dead: to begin with. 4. The Haunted Hotel / Wilkie Collins http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext94/hhotl10.txt f. In the year 1860, the reputation of Doctor Wybrow as a London physician reached its highest point. 5. Ghost Stories of an Antiquary / M. R. James http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext06/8jgs210.txt h. Two men in a smoking-room were talking of their private-school days. 6. Dracula / Bram Stoker http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext95/dracu12.txt d. 3 May. Bistritz.--Left Munich at 8:35 P.M., on 1st May, arriving at Vienna early next morning; should have arrived at 6:46, but train was an hour late. 7. Present at a Hanging and Other Ghost Stories / Ambrose Bierce http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03/prhg10.txt b. My peculiar relation to the writer of the following narratives is such that I must ask the reader to overlook the absence of explanation as to how they came into my possession. 8. The Pit and the Pendulum / Edgar Allan Poe http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext00/poe2v10.txt e. I was sick -- sick unto death with that long agony; and when they at length unbound me, and I was permitted to sit, I felt that my senses were leaving me. 9. The Ghost and the Bone Setter / Sheridan Le Fanu http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext96/pclp110.txt m. In looking over the papers of my late valued and respected friend, Francis Purcell, who for nearly fifty years discharged the arduous

duties of a parish priest in the south of Ireland, I met with the following document. 10. The Castle of Otranto / by Horace Walpole http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext96/cotrt10.txt i. The following work was found in the library of an ancient Catholic family in the north of England. 11. The Hound of the Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext02/bskrv11a.txt l. Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings, save upon those not infrequent occasions when he was up all night, was seated at the breakfast table. 12. Phantom 'Rickshaw & Other Ghost Stories / Rudyard Kipling http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext01/phric11.txt k. One of the few advantages that India has over England is a great Knowability. 13. Frankenstein / by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext93/frank14.txt j. TO Mrs. Saville, England St. Petersburgh, Dec. 11th, 17You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings. ---------------------------------------------------------------------Mailing list information For more information about the Project Gutenberg's mailing lists please visit the following webpage: http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/subs.html Trouble? If you are having trouble subscribing, unsubscribing or with anything else related to the mailing lists, please email "[email protected]" to contact the lists' (human) administrator. If you would just like a little more information about Lyris features, you can find their help information at http://www.lyris.com/help ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Credits Thanks this time go to Brett and George for the numbers and booklists. Tonya, Thierry, Gali, the Gutenberg Press Gang, Mike, Greg, Michael, Mark and Larry Wall. Entertainment for the workers provided by BBC 6Music and lots of fireworks. Bet you thought I'd gone to sleep there, eh?