A Fitting Memorial

So I'd like to start off by saying, I've started this site by myself. It is in no way endorsed by or related to anyone at Project Gutenberg, or any member of the Hart family.

It is meant as a tribute to someone who inspired me when I was younger.

I will never forget being 13, in my mother's basement (like a true hacker) and coming across Thus Spake Zarathustra for the first time.

I devoured these early e-books like some insatiable literary Galactus. I consumed universe after universe of classic books and stories, eventually reading almost the entire English collection on Project Gutenberg.

Now at the time the project wasn't even five years in, and most people I told about it thought the whole notion was just a passing fad. But when Google announced they were scanning and digitizing the Library of Congress, the idea of bringing the collected great works of humanity to a digital media didn't seem so ridiculous.

I will admit that I am a tremendous fan of Google's work in this arena, and that every night for the last several months, I have read a chapter from one of Frank L. Baum's Oz novels to my daughter off the screen of my Android phone as she drifts off to sleep.

That is not to say that there is no place in our 21st century home for real books. Everyday she and I read Ten Apples Up on Top by Theodore Geisel, whom you probably know better as Dr. Seuss. That's a physical book, she takes it, she looks at the pictures, we point out the animals together. She loves her Elmo books, and she even has her Dora books with the little push buttons that make noise, but I have never in my life come across a physical copy of Ozma of Oz. And certainly not one I would entrust to a two-year-old. So even though it's through the Google Books App, I feel that my family's nightly ritual is still a tribute to the pioneering work of Mr. Hart.

And that is why I started this blog.

Every week, I will post a screen cap of the revenue tabs to provide a transparent accounting system, and as I promised in the Project Hart Tab, I will donate half of the proceeds from this blog to the surviving family members of Mr. Hart, and the other half to Project Gutenberg.

Again, this is just me, and it's all subject to change. I hope to establish a foundation to take ownership of this blog, and host it on a proper server as a regular e-zine. I hope it generates tremendous revenue for Project Gutenberg, and I hope to allow for direct donations, but all of that will come with time. For now I simply hope that it will be a place where people can come and pay tribute to one of those rare men who really did change the world.

Here's to you Mr. Hart.