the light literally went onover my head like in the cartoons and comics I knew what the futureof
computing, and the internet, was going to be =The InformationAge.‘ The rest, as they say, is history.?
Michael keyed in The United States Declaration of Independence to themainframe he was using, in upper
case, because there was no lower caseyet. The file was 5 K. To send a 5 K file to the 100 users of the pre-
internet of the time would have crashed the network, so Michaelmentioned where the etext was stored -
though without a hypertext link,because the web was still 20 years ahead. It was downloaded by sixusers.
Project Gutenberg was born.
Michael decided to use the huge amount of computer time he had beengiven to search the literary works
that were stored in libraries, andto digitize these works. A book would become a continuous text fileinstead
of a set of pages. Project Gutenberg‘s mission would be thefollowing: to put at everyone‘s disposal, in
electronic versions, asmany literary works as possible for free.
After keying in The United States Declaration of Independence (signedon July 4, 1776) in 1971, Michael
typed in a longer text, The UnitedStates Bill of Rights, in 1972, i.e. the first ten amendments added in1789
to the Constitution (dated 1787) and defining the individualrights of the citizens and the distinct powers of
the federalgovernment and the States. A volunteer typed in The United StatesConstitution in 1973.
From one year to the next, disk space was getting larger, by thestandards of the time – there was no hard
disk yet -, making itpossible to store larger files.
Volunteers began typing in The Bible, with one individual book at atime, and a file for each book.
Michael typed in the collected works of Shakespeare, with volunteers,one play at a time, and a file for each
play. This edition ofShakespeare was never released, unfortunately, due to changes incopyright law.
Shakespeare‘s works belong to public domain, butcomments and notes may be copyrighted, depending on
the publicationdate. Other editions of Shakespeare from public domain were released afew years later.
# 10 to 1,000 ebooks
Its critics long considered Project Gutenberg as impossible on a largescale. But Michael went on keying
book after book during many years,with the help of some volunteers.
In August 1989, Project Gutenberg completed its 10th ebook, The KingJames Bible (1769), both
testaments, and 5M for all files.
In 1990, there were 250,000 internet users. The web was in its infancy.
The standard was 360 K disks.
In January 1991, Michael typed in Alice‘s Adventures in Wonderland(1865), by Lewis Carroll. In July
1991, he typed in Peter Pan (1904),by James M. Barrie. These two classics of childhood literature each
fiton one disk.
The first browser, Mosaic, was released in November 1993. It becameeasier to circulate etexts and recruit
volunteers. From 1991 to 1996,the number of ebooks doubled every year, with one ebook per month
in1991, two ebooks per month in 1992, four ebooks per month in 1993, andeight ebooks per month in
1994.
In January 1994, Project Gutenberg released The Complete Works ofWilliam Shakespeare as eBook #100.
Shakespeare wrote most of his worksbetween 1590 and 1613.
The steady growth went on, with an average of 8 ebooks per month in1994, 16 ebooks per month in 1995,
and 32 ebooks per month in 1996.
In June 1997, Project Gutenberg released The Merry Adventures of Robin
Hood (1883), by Howard Pyle.
Project Gutenberg reached 1,000 ebooks in August 1997. EBook #1000 wasLa Divina Commedia (1321),
by Dante Alighieri, in Italian, its originallanguage.
With the number of ebooks on the rise, three main sections were set up:(a) ?Light Literature?, such as
Alice‘s Adventures in Wonderland,Through the Looking-Glass, Peter Pan and Aesop‘s Fables; (b)
?HeavyLiterature?, such as the Bible, Shakespeare‘s works, Moby Dick andParadise Lost; (c) ?Reference
