Look what I've found! :D

[regshoe]

I've been weeping and moaning for some time over not being able to find—physical or digitised—first editions of Winifred Holtby's first two novels, Anderby Wold and The Crowded Street, because they're both eligible for digitisation on Project Gutenberg and I would very much like to do them, especially The Crowded Street. Today, energised by another book disappointing me in a common way which The Crowded Street very happily averts, I went looking for it again. I thought, well, the Bodleian must at least have a copy, being a legal deposit library, even if they won't let me see it—so I went and did some more searching on their website, and lo and behold, a digitised and publicly accessible scan of the 1924 first edition of The Crowded Street! I don't know how I missed it before—not searching on the right website, perhaps.

Anyway, this will be my next ebook project. I am delighted! It's a brilliant book, I'll love working on it and I hope lots more people will get to read it. :D

(As for Anderby Wold, I've discovered that it is actually on the list of ebooks currently in progress for Project Gutenberg—but the copyright request was submitted more than three years ago, so I'm not sure how likely this is actually to result in an ebook. But it seems like bad manners to butt in and start doing my own version when it is there already. Hmm—a problem for the future).

Comments

[edwardianspinsteraunt]

Hooray!! :D :D That sounds like a very exciting project, I hope you have fun

[regshoe]

:D It is very exciting, and thank you!

[luzula]

May I proofread? Of course I am curious about the book now, since you are enthusiastic about it. : )

[regshoe]

Aww, you certainly may—thank you for offering! I hope you enjoy the book. :)

[sovay]

so I went and did some more searching on their website, and lo and behold, a digitised and publicly accessible scan of the 1924 first edition of The Crowded Street!

Awesome! I love when something like that just turns up.

[regshoe]

I know, it's a great thing to find :D

[osprey_archer]

Oh, yay! I've meant to read more Winifred Holtby ever since I read South Riding. She deserves to be better known!

(I still haven't read White Cockades, though. *cries* Someday soon!)

[regshoe]

She certainly does! All the books I've read of hers so far are excellent, and I'm saving the rest to read slowly.

And I hope you like White Cockades when you do get to it—so many books, so little time...

[lirazel]

Oh lovely! I'm so glad you found exactly what you were looking for!

Is there a reason that the Persephone edition doesn't work for you?

[regshoe]

Thank you :D

Is there a reason that the Persephone edition doesn't work for you?

Yes—Project Gutenberg requires the specific books used to make ebooks to be in the public domain—which generally means published more than 95 years ago, in the US where they're based—and new editions usually get new copyright, unless they're very straightforward reprints of older editions.

[lirazel]

Oh, I see! I didn't realize that Persephone would get new copyrights on the specific ones they printed but that makes sense.

[regshoe]

The exact rules for what does and doesn't get new copyright are a bit complicated—it may be only the 'new' stuff added, e.g. if the Persephone edition has an introduction, rather than the text of the book itself (PG says it 'depends on whether the new edition involves “authorship” or simply corrects punctuation'). But you have to submit scans of copyright pages demonstrating pre-1927 publication to get clearance for a new ebook. For one of mine I used a more recent facsimile reprint and was specifically told not to use any material except the facsimile itself (and its copyright pages rather than the ones from the reprint). All fun stuff to work out!

[lirazel]

Copyright is so ridiculously complicated! I know there's a huge demand in university libraries for people who work just with figuring out copyright stuff, and you can do pretty well in that field, but it sounds like a nightmare to me. But I'm so glad some people are out there figuring this stuff out so that there's greater access to older texts!

[regshoe]

Huh, I can imagine—that must make for interesting work, if somewhat nightmarish. To be honest I don't understand the complications at all—I just stick to using obviously out of copyright stuff for my ebooks, and it's worked well enough so far!–and I'm also glad to know there are people figuring it out properly.