Project Gutenberg
LightNews LightNews
banner
gutenberg.org
Project Gutenberg
@gutenberg.org
5.5K followers 130 following 2.1K posts
Project Gutenberg, founded in 1971, is the oldest producer and distributor of free ebooks.

For more information, visit our website at:
https://www.gutenberg.org/
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
gutenberg.org
Project Gutenberg @gutenberg.org · Apr 1
Thanks to Neel Lopes for an interview podcast with Greg Newby, Director of the PGLAF. The podcast covers Greg's early involvement with Project Gutenberg, and discussion about the background and status of Project Gutenberg's role in the world of online literature.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-HG...
Dr. Greg Newby on being CEO of Project Gutenberg and being with the Government of Yukon Territory
YouTube video by Knowledge and Mind
www.youtube.com
gutenberg.org
Project to bring voices of enslaved people to life

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/p...

#history #slavery
Slave woman and child
November 25, 2025 at 12:18 PM
gutenberg.org
The copyright and the public good

Ross’s 1930 The Right and the Good introduced an ethics of balancing intuitive “prima facie” duties rather than strict rules or outcomes.

By John Mark Ockerbloom

everybodyslibraries.com/2025/11/24/t...

#books #publicDomainDayCountdown
The Right and the Good (book cover) The cover is simple and scholarly in appearance, using a plain, solid background with minimal ornamentation. The title The Right and the Good appears in clear, straightforward lettering near the top, with W. D. Ross listed as the author beneath it. The design emphasizes a formal academic style—unembellished, text-focused, and likely printed in a traditional serif font. There are no illustrations or decorative elements, giving the cover a restrained and classic. W. D. Ross - https://archive.org/details/rightgood0000ross/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Right_and_the_Good#/media/File:The_Right_and_the_Good_(book_cover).jpg
November 25, 2025 at 10:56 AM
gutenberg.org
‘He was just trying to earn a few kopecks’: how newly translated stories reveal Chekhov’s silly side

By Viv Groskop

www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

Chekhov at PG:
www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/autho...

#books #literature
Anton Chekhov in 1893. Chekhov stands outdoors in front of a wooden structure with ornate balusters. He is dressed in a long, light-colored overcoat and a dark hat, with a full beard and a calm, direct expression. Surrounding him are bare branches and foliage, giving the scene a slightly austere atmosphere. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Chekhov#/media/File:Chekhov_ht.jpg
November 25, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Reposted by Project Gutenberg
laurenpburka.bsky.social
All of these people who can't afford to buy books need an introduction to the public library and @gutenberg.org , which will give you more books than you can possibly read for free.
November 24, 2025 at 4:05 PM
gutenberg.org
Tanjung Bungah, Malaysia

Cat Beach Sanctuary

A seaside haven for 300 rescued cats.

www.atlasobscura.com/places/cat-b...

#animals #travel
Black Longhaired Cat
November 24, 2025 at 3:14 PM
gutenberg.org
Questions on the Beautiful

Few great visual artists are especially good writers, Eugène Delacroix was one of the exceptions.

By Alice Gribbin

www.alicegribbin.com/p/delacroix-...

Delacroix at PG:
www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/autho...

#books #painting #literature
Eugène Delacroix: Arabs Traveling (1855). The painting shows Eugène Delacroix’s Arabs Traveling (1855), depicting a small caravan moving through a rugged, mountainous landscape. In the foreground, a rider on a dark horse turns slightly, draped in flowing white garments and a turban. Nearby, another rider on a pale horse is guided by a man walking alongside. A fourth figure, carrying supplies and a long firearm, looks toward the travelers. The terrain is rocky and uneven, with steep slopes leading into distant valleys. The sky is expansive, filled with soft clouds and warm light. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Delacroix_-_Arabs_Traveling,_1855.jpg
November 24, 2025 at 10:38 AM
gutenberg.org
“The great American novel, and not a word in it- no music, too”

Milt Gross tackled the wordless novel in 1930. He Done Her Wrong playfully parodied Lynd Ward’s somber style.

By John Mark Ockerbloom

everybodyslibraries.com/2025/11/23/t...

#books #publicDomainDayCountdown
Title page from He Done Her Wrong by Milt Gross. The image shows the title page of Milt Gross’s He Done Her Wrong (1930). It features bold, hand-drawn lettering with an exaggerated, cartoonish style typical of Gross’s humor. The title dominates the page, rendered in large, playful block letters. Beneath it appears the author’s name, also illustrated in a lively, comic manner. Decorative lines and flourishes frame the composition. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Milt_Gross_(1930)_He_Done_Her_Wrong_(title_page).jpg
November 24, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Reposted by Project Gutenberg
asls.org.uk
Works by James “B.V.” Thomson – “The City of Dreadful Night” & “Satires & Profanities” – are available free online via @gutenberg.org
#poetry
4/4
www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/autho...
Books by Thomson, James
Project Gutenberg offers 77,113 free eBooks for Kindle, iPad, Nook, Android, and iPhone.
www.gutenberg.org
November 23, 2025 at 2:48 PM
gutenberg.org
10 Oldest Museums in the U.S.

The oldest museums in the United States of America, including key dates, signature collections, and lasting impact.

www.thecollector.com/oldest-museu...
The Smithsonian Institution Building or "Castle's" south entrance, viewed from Independence Avenue. The Enid A. Haupt Garden welcomes visitors through the gates, 1990" - picryl.com
November 23, 2025 at 1:50 PM
gutenberg.org
From Monte Carlo to the final frontier

“Beyond the Blue Horizon,” introduced in Lubitsch’s Monte Carlo, enters the public domain soon.

By John Mark Ockerbloom

everybodyslibraries.com/2025/11/22/f...

#books #publicDomainDayCountdown #music
Beyond the blue horizon by Young, Victor, 1900-1956 The image shows a handwritten sheet music manuscript titled “Lion and Boy” (Beyond the Blue Horizon), attributed to Victor Young. The notation is written in dark ink on yellowed paper, giving it an aged archival look. Musical staves fill the page, with expressive handwritten notes, chords, measure numbers, and performance markings. Boxes and small annotations appear throughout, indicating cues or edits. At the bottom, a handwritten note reads “Property of Paramount Pictures Inc.” followed by a date written in cursive, 1/23/41. https://archive.org/details/beyondbluehorizo00youn
November 23, 2025 at 9:46 AM
gutenberg.org
Break out the calculators: November 23 is Fibonacci Sequence Day

The cornerstone of modern math wouldn’t be possible without the Hindu-Arabic numerical system.

by Andrew Paul

www.popsci.com/science/fibo...

Fibonacci at PG:
www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/searc...

#books #mathematics #old_manuscripts
A page of Fibonacci's Liber Abaci from the Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze showing (in box on right) 13 entries of the Fibonacci sequence: the indices from present to XII (months) as Latin ordinals and Roman numerals and the numbers (of rabbit pairs) as Hindu-Arabic numerals starting with 1, 2, 3, 5 and ending with 377. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Liber_abbaci_magliab_f124r.jpg
November 23, 2025 at 9:37 AM
gutenberg.org
Chimney Sweep Museum

"The only museum in Italy dedicated to this ancient profession."

www.atlasobscura.com/places/chimn...

#history #museum
Chimney Sweep Museum
The only museum in Italy dedicated to this ancient profession.
www.atlasobscura.com
November 22, 2025 at 1:26 PM
gutenberg.org
Writing across the Pacific

Pearl S. Buck, raised in China, wrote early novels about Chinese life during a period of U.S. exclusion and discrimination.

By John Mark Ockerbloom

everybodyslibraries.com/2025/11/21/w...

#books #publicDomainDayCountdown
Cover of East Wind: West Wind (1932 edition) is a novel by Pearl S. Buck published in 1930. The cover of the 1932 edition of East Wind: West Wind features a stylized, decorative design with an East Asian aesthetic. The background is a muted tan or parchment-like color. At the center is an illustration of a woman's face in profile, framed by flowing black hair and delicate lines, evoking traditional Chinese artistic motifs. Around the portrait are decorative borders with geometric and floral patterns in black and red. The title East Wind: West Wind appears prominently in bold lettering, with Pearl S. Buck’s name displayed below. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Wind:_West_Wind#/media/File:EastWindWestWind.jpg
November 22, 2025 at 11:18 AM
gutenberg.org
Rethinking where language comes from: Framework reveals complex interplay of biology and culture

by Max Planck Society

phys.org/news/2025-11...

#books #culture #biology #language
The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Oil on board, 1563. Humans have speculated about the origins of language throughout history. The Biblical myth of the Tower of Babel is one such account; other cultures have different stories of how language arose. The painting shows Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s The Tower of Babel (1563), depicting a colossal, spiraling tower under construction. The structure dominates the landscape, its arches and stacked tiers resembling a monumental, half-finished coliseum. Workers and scaffolding cling to the tower’s surface, emphasizing the scale and ambition of the project. In the foreground, a gathering of figures appear to be overseeing the construction. The surrounding landscape shows a bustling port city, with ships, houses, and fields extending toward the horizon. The sky is partly cloudy, contrasting the monumental tower with the smallness of human activity below. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language#/media/File:Pieter_Bruegel_the_Elder_-_The_Tower_of_Babel_(Vienna)_-_Google_Art_Project_-_edited.jpg
November 22, 2025 at 11:13 AM
Reposted by Project Gutenberg
archive.org
We are back. Our provider found and repaired a fiber issue last night and traffic has returned. We are sorry for the disruption.
archive.org Internet Archive @archive.org · 5d
The Wayback Machine, openlibrary.org, and some other archive.org functions are offline because some network gear has failed.

We apologize and are working on it. More as it happens.
November 21, 2025 at 3:14 PM
gutenberg.org
The 100 Greatest Novels of All Time, According to 750,000 Readers in the UK (2003)

www.openculture.com/2025/10/the-...

#books #literature
bookshelf
November 21, 2025 at 1:15 PM
gutenberg.org
Scientists found the key to accurate Maya eclipse tables

Eclipse tables in the Dresden Codex were based on lunar tables and adjusted for slippage over time.

by Jennifer Ouellette

arstechnica.com/science/2025...

Original article
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#books #old_manuscripts #astronomy
Pages of the Dresden codex on eclipses . The image shows several adjoining pages of the Dresden Codex, an ancient Maya manuscript. The pages are filled with dense Maya hieroglyphs, numbers, and symbols arranged in horizontal rows and vertical columns. Much of the imagery uses black and red ink on a cream-colored, weathered surface. Across the pages are repeating patterns of dot-and-bar numerals, used in Maya calendrical calculations. Interspersed among the glyph blocks are stylized drawings of deities and serpent-like figures, characteristic of Maya cosmology. These particular pages are known for containing astronomical tables related to eclipses, and the highly structured numerical sequences suggest predictive calculations.
November 21, 2025 at 10:52 AM
gutenberg.org
Drowning in the Light of Monet’s Venice

Venice turned out to be the ideal environment for the artist to explore the relationship between water and light that long preoccupied him.

by Natalie Haddad

hyperallergic.com/1057971/drow...

At PG
www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/searc...

#art #books #painting
Claude Monet, "San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk" (1908). It depicts mysterious buildings that seem to magically appear from the surrounding landscape, they almost seem to float in the background. The forms are gently inserted, though not enough to disguise their identity. The painting focuses on the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore with its bell tower rising to the top of the painting. To the right are the faintly visible domes of Santa Maria della Salute and the mouth of the Grand Canal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Giorgio_Maggiore_at_Dusk#/media/File:Claude_Monet,_Saint-Georges_majeur_au_cr%C3%A9puscule.jpg
November 21, 2025 at 10:47 AM
gutenberg.org
The patchwork canon of Oz

Ruth Plumly Thompson’s The Yellow Knight of Oz enters the public domain soon, a quirky yet delightful outlier in the canon.

By John Mark Ockerbloom

everybodyslibraries.com/2025/11/20/t...

#books #publicDomainDayCountdown
Cover of The Yellow Knight of Oz by Ruth Plumly Thompson Illustratated by John R. Neill At the top, the title appears in large blue lettering. The central figure is a brightly dressed knight in vivid yellow and red armor, with a dramatic plumed helmet and cape. He stands with one arm raised. Beside him is a young person in simple clothing, looking up at him. Surrounding them are whimsical Oz characters, including animal-like figures and fantastical creatures. A large circular emblem with a red “Z” on a yellow background appears to the right. At the bottom, the cover credits Ruth Plumly Thompson as author (continuing the famous Oz stories) and notes L. Frank Baum, with illustration credit to John R. Neill. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yellow_Knight_of_Oz#/media/File:Yellow_knight_cover.jpg
November 21, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Reposted by Project Gutenberg
asls.org.uk
The Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds (1841), written by the 19th-century Scottish poet, author & journalist Charles Mackay (1814–1889), can be downloaded as a free ebook from @gutenberg.org
www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24518
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Mackay
Free kindle book and epub digitized and proofread by volunteers.
www.gutenberg.org
November 20, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Reposted by Project Gutenberg
archive.org
Status update: fiber cut between data centers - trucks are rolling. Services are slow but functional, except for the Wayback Machine, which is still offline.
archive.org Internet Archive @archive.org · 5d
The Wayback Machine, openlibrary.org, and some other archive.org functions are offline because some network gear has failed.

We apologize and are working on it. More as it happens.
November 20, 2025 at 8:11 PM
gutenberg.org
#OTD In 1858, Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf was born.

"She published her first novel, Gösta Berling's Saga, at the age of 33.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selma_L...

Books by Lagerlöf at PG:

www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/autho...

#books #literature
Selma Lagerlöf - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 20, 2025 at 12:17 PM
gutenberg.org
Chateaubriand, Writing of a Worthless Time

By Alex Andriesse

www.theparisreview.org/blog/2025/11...

Chateaubriand at PG:
www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/autho...

#books #literature #history
Antoine-Jean-Baptiste Thomas, Louis XVIII Receiving the Duc d’Angoulême on His Return from the Spanish Campaign, December 2, 1823. In this oil-on-canvas history painting King Louis XVIII, seated and visibly frail, warmly greets his nephew Louis Antoine, the victorious Duc d’Angoulême, just returned from commanding the French intervention in Spain. The duke stands proudly before him, dressed in full military uniform. Around them are key members of the Bourbon family: behind the duke is Marie-Thérèse Charlotte (“Madame Royale”), his wife, gazing up at him with admiration; to the left of the king stands Charles, Count of Artois (future Charles X), holding the young Duke of Bordeaux in his arms; nearby is the Duchess of Berry with her daughter. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Louis_XVIII_re%C3%A7oit_le_duc_d%27Angoul%C3%AAme_au_retour_de_la_guerre_d%27Espagne,_2_d%C3%A9cembre_1823.jpg
November 20, 2025 at 9:10 AM
gutenberg.org
A breakthrough technology breaks through to the public domain

Electrical recording arrived in 1925, replacing acoustic horns with microphones for richer, clearer sound.

By John Mark Ockerbloom

everybodyslibraries.com/2025/11/19/a...

#PublicDomainDayCountdown
Emile Berliner with disc record gramophone German-American engineer Emile Berliner (1851-1929) with the model of the first phonograph machine which he invented. Emile Berliner, the German-American engineer (1851–1929), is shown standing beside an early disc record gramophone of his own invention. He poses with the machine’s large metal horn and turntable, highlighting the groundbreaking device that helped transition recorded sound from cylinders to flat discs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_recording_and_reproduction#/media/File:Emile_Berliner_with_phonograph.jpg
November 20, 2025 at 9:04 AM
gutenberg.org
An End to Kings, 1776

by Jack Kelly

www.thehistoryreader.com/historical-f...

"Common Sense" at PG:

www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/147

#books #literature #history #ushistory
An End to Kings, 1776 - The History Reader : The History Reader
Author Jack Kelly of Tom Paine's War reveals the crucial role of Thomas Paine in encouraging Americans to overthrow King George in 1776.
www.thehistoryreader.com
November 19, 2025 at 2:05 PM