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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
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The Turbulent Life of Livia Augusta, the First Roman Empress

"When Livia married Augustus, she became the first Roman empress. She is remembered both as the ideal matron and a ruthless mother."

www.thecollector.com/livia-august...

#history #romanhistory
Drawing of head of Livia Druisilla
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Who Is the Man Who Discovered the Universe?

A century ago, Edwin Hubble began the race to the edge of the cosmos

by Damond Benningfield

www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/air-sp...

Edwin Hubble at PG:
www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/autho...

#books #astronomy
Studio Portrait of Edwin Powell Hubble. Photographer: Johan Hagemeyer, Camera Portraits Carmel. Photograph signed by photographer, dated 1931.

Hubble is shown from the chest up, wearing a dark jacket, white shirt, and tie.

His face is calm, focused, and serious. He holds a pipe.

Johan Hagemeyer - http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15150coll2/id/129

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Hubble#/media/File:Studio_portrait_photograph_of_Edwin_Powell_Hubble_(cropped).JPG
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I Have a Wodehouse Problem. The Problem Is I Can’t Stop Reading Him

I have to limit myself to three pages at a go, once per day, with the first cup of coffee

by Mark Migotti

thewalrus.ca/i-have-a-wod...

P. G. Wodehouse at PG:
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#books #literature
Image of the writer PG Wodehouse from 1930.

Wodehouse is shown standing outdoors, dressed in a suit and overcoat, with a hat. He looks relaxed and content, smiling broadly.

He holds something in his hands, giving a casual, informal air.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._G._Wodehouse#/media/File:P.G._Wodehouse,_1930.jpg

https://archive.org/details/screenland21unse/page/n424/mode/1up
Reposted by Project Gutenberg
asls.org.uk
You can read William Lithgow’s (deep breath)

The Totall Discourse of The Rare Adventures & Painefull Peregrinations of long Nineteene Yeares Travayles from Scotland to the most famous Kingdomes in Europe, Asia and Affrica

online via @gutenberg.org
3/3
www.gutenberg.org/files/61545/...
An illustration from William Lithgow's RARE ADVENTURES, showing the author in Turkish dress. He stands, wearing a cape and a very large turban, one hand on his hip and the other holding a staff. Behind hi, to the left, are some ruins, and to the right, some trees. An eagle stands on the ground to his left, as well, and in front of him are two stone-covered ancient tombs. Beneath the illustration is a short verse:

Loe here’s mine Effigie, and Turkish suite;
My staffe, my shasse, as I did Asia foote:
Plac’d in old Ilium; Priams scepter thralles:
The Grecian Campe design’d; lost Dardan falles
Gird’d with small simois: Idaes tops, a Gate;
Two fatall Tombes, an Eagle, sackt Troyes state.
Reposted by Project Gutenberg
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Great!! Thanks for sharing, really appreciate it.
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I misunderstood you then, truly sorry.
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You’re very welcome!
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On Translating Proust and the Art of Not Reading Ahead

“It is a bummer to me that Proust occupies such a rarefied, even elitist, realm in the culture.”

lithub.com/on-translati...

Marcel Proust (who was also a translator himself) at PG:
www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/autho...

#books #translation
Jacques-Émile Blanche, Portrait de Marcel Proust (1892), Paris, musée d'Orsay.

Proust wears a formal black suit with a white waistcoat and bow tie. 

Proust’s delicate, pale face—with finely arched eyebrows, dark hair, and a faint mustache—is turned slightly toward the viewer.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Proust#/media/Fichier:Jacques-Emile_Blanche_Portrait_de_Marcel_Proust_1892.jpg
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The Race to Save a Medieval Palestinian Library

Ryan Byrnes on the Khalidi Family’s Battle to Protect Their Library From Ultra-Orthodox Settlers

lithub.com/the-race-to-...

#books #libraries
Khalidi Library, from the opening c. 1900. From right: Hajj Raghib al-Khalidi, Sheikh Taher al-Jaza’ireh (from Damascus), Sheikh Musa Shafiq al-Khalidi, Sheikh Khalil al-Khalidi, Sheikh Muhammad al-Habbal (from Beirut)

Costumes and characters, etc. Mohammedan sheikhs and effendies in front of Bibboth Khaldieh, Jerusalem

https://loc.gov/pictures/resource/matpc.06804/
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Send me the reference then.
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Nobel prizes you’ve never heard of: how an obscure version of colour photography beat quantum theory to the most prestigious prize in physics

by Margaret Harris

physicsworld.com/a/nobel-priz...

Qunatum theory at PG:
www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subje...

#books #physics #nobelprize
Gabriel Lippmann. (Courtesy: Nobel Foundation archive).

This formal portrait photograph of Gabriel Lippmann depicts the French physicist and inventor best known for developing color photography based on the interference of light.

Lippmann is shown from the chest upward, wearing a dark suit, white shirt, and bow tie. His groomed beard and mustache frame a composed, intellectual expression. His hair is neatly parted, and his gaze is directed slightly to one side, giving the portrait a dignified, reflective tone.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Lippmann#/media/File:Gabriel_Lippmann2.jpg
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Lost chapter of world's first novel found in Japanese storeroom

A fifth part of The Tale of Genji, which was completed around 1010 by a woman later named Murasaki Shikibu, has been found in a house in Tokyo

by Alison Flood

www.theguardian.com/books/2019/o...

thanks @satorukun0530.bsky.social
Lost chapter of world's first novel found in Japanese storeroom
A fifth part of The Tale of Genji, which was completed around 1010 by a woman later named Murasaki Shikibu, has been found in a house in Tokyo
www.theguardian.com
gutenberg.org
The Kafka Challenge

Translating the Inimitable

by Paul Reitter

hedgehogreview.com/issues/lesso...

Kafka at PG:
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#books #literature #Translation
Last known photograph of Franz Kafka, alternative version of File:Kafka.jpg. Most likely taken in 1923.

Unknown author - Franz Kafka: Pictures of a Life by Klaus Wagenbach (1984), p. 209; sourced to Klaus Wagenbach Archiv, Berlin https://kafkamuseum.cz/en/photogallery/

Kafka appears thin and pale. He wears a dark suit and tie with a white shirt, his posture upright but reserved. His face is gaunt, with pronounced cheekbones and deep-set eyes. His expression is neutral.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kafka#/media/File:Franz_Kafka,_1923.jpg
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How Cigar Factory ‘Readers’ Shaped Cuban Political Movements

"Lectors, or readers, once sparked revolution. Where are they today?"

www.atlasobscura.com/articles/pod...
Havana Cigar Factory (1915) shows a group of men at desks rolling cigars.
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A Lost Chapter Of The World’s First Novel Discovered In A Japanese Home

It's one of 54 chapters from a transcription of The Tale of Genji, written in the 11th century.

By Natasha Ishak

allthatsinteresting.com/tale-of-genj...

The Tale Of Genji at PG:
www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/searc...

#books
Portrait-Icon of Murasaki Shikibu (Murasaki Shikibu zu), 17th century, by Tosa Mitsuoki. 

Murasaki Shikibu appears poised to begin writing her tale, pausing as if in mid-thought. Her head tilts away from her desk, while her trancelike stare is directed slightly upward, toward the calligraphy sheets in the upper portion of the painting. 

The inscriptions list the four stages of Tendai Buddhist contemplation (shimon) that Murasaki was said to have mastered, along with two of her waka (thirty-one-syllable poems) that speak to life’s impermanence (mujōkan).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_Genji#/media/File:Tosa_Mitsuoki%E2%80%94Portrait_of_Murasaki_Shikibu.jpg
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PROJECT GUTENBERG NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2025

CEO Greg Newby battles cancer; Eric Hellman named interim PGLAF director. Robert Tonsing joins the Board. Help make new eBooks via Distributed Proofreaders. Explore PG’s media, social links, and new releases.

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The hunt for Marie Curie's radioactive fingerprints in Paris

More than 100 years after her groundbreaking work, Sophie Hardach travels to Paris to trace the lingering radioactive fingerprints she left behind.

www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...

At PG:
www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/autho...

#womenInStem
Marie Curie - Mobile Military Hospital X-Ray-Unit, c. 1915.

Marie Curie is seated in a vehicle that serves as a mobile X-ray unit (radiological car) during WWI. 

The mobile unit resembles a large motor truck or van converted to carry X-ray equipment. It has an enclosed rear section, likely to shelter equipment and provide some workspace. The front cabin is open; Curie is seated behind the wheel, suggesting she may have been driving or positioned there for the photo.

She wears a dark coat or wrap and sits formally in the driver's position. Her attire is practical rather than ornate. She has a serious but composed expression.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Curie#/media/File:Marie_Curie_-_Mobile_X-Ray-Unit.jpg
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The Infamous Sorceress Morgan le Fay of Arthurian Legend

"Morgan le Fay is the infamous sorceress in the Arthurian legends, but how did this strong and bewitching female character emerge?"

www.thecollector.com/morgan-le-fa...

Books by Thomas Malory at PG:

www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/autho...
The Passing of Arthur by Daniel Maclise "This intensely beautiful design shows the moment when the wounded Arthur is taken to Avalon by three queens. One leans over him in a tender gesture that is partly sexual and in part motherly. Though near death, the King is shown as a gigantic, heroic figure, almost too large to be contained in the boat. Maclise emphasises the notion of healing by rhyming a series of curving lines: the prow of the vessel, the sail above it and the domed apex all suggest a womb-like space in which Arthur will be reborn. These ‘feminine’ forms contrast markedly with the phallic symbolism of Excalibur in the first illustration for ‘Morte D’Arthur’, showing the start of his reign. The contrast of light and dark, death and life, further suggests the hero’s position, tenuously between his passing and his return. This was one of the most successful illustrations from the ‘Moxon Tennyson’, and was reprinted in several contemporary publications." - https://victorianweb.org/art/illustration/maclise/17.html