ePub Book Requests (Public Domain books ONLY!)

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by thegrendel

I'd very much like to see a decent English translation of this
posted as an epub. The original is clearly in the Public Domain,
but translations?

Most of Jules Verne's works appear never to have been translated into English, unfortunately. Do you know of an English translation of this particular book?

[tuskin]

Hi,

here:
http://archive.org/details/begumsfortune00vernrich

- tuskin -

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by tuskin

Hi,

here:
http://archive.org/details/begumsfortune00vernrich

- tuskin -

There is an ePub on that site. Even if it isn't perfect it may be a good starting point.

Dale

[GeorgeH]

According to wikipedia:

- From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Begum's_Fortune :

The book [Begum's Fortune] first appeared in a hasty and poorly done English translation soon after its publication in French – one of the bad translations which are considered to have damaged Verne's reputation in the English-speaking world. W. H. G. Kingston was near death and deeply in debt at the time. His wife, Mrs. A. K. Kingston, who did the translation for him, was certainly otherwise preoccupied than with the accuracy of the text and may have had to rely on outside help. Recently, a new translation from the French was made by Stanford L. Luce and published by Wesleyan University.

- From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_L._Luce :

Stanford Leonard Luce Jr (May 19, 1923 – March 26, 2007) is well known for his work on Louis-Ferdinand Céline and his English translations of Jules Verne books, especially The Kip Brothers which he was the first to translate into English 105 years after the novel was written.

[varlet]

I have been looking for stories by Nelson S. Bond. He was a pulp author in the forties and fifties. known for humorous short stories

[doubleshuffle]

Originally Posted by varlet

I have been looking for stories by Nelson S. Bond. He was a pulp author in the forties and fifties. known for humorous short stories

Well, since he only died in 2006 and didn't start publishing stories before 1937, there won't be anything by him in the public domain.

[Billi]

varlet, you can search Project Gutenberg but you will find only one short story (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/34095). Maybe there is not much around by Bond in digital format. Or if you know the magazines where he was published that might be a beginning too.

[SBT]

When I set off making an SQL database over the books in the library, somebody asked me the pertinent question as to the (f)utility of the exercise. I am still working on the answer, but here, at least, is a list of ~3000 books which have been submitted as .mobi-files, but not as epub. I guarantee it is not error-free; double-check that an epub edition does not exist before submitting a converted version.

This work is assumed to be in the Life+70 public domain OR the copyright holder has given specific permission for distribution. Copyright laws differ throughout the world, and it may still be under copyright in some countries. Before downloading, please check your country's copyright laws. If the book is under copyright in your country, do not download or redistribute this work.

To report a copyright violation you can contact us here.

[DaleDe]

Good to know. Mobi was around much earlier than ePub. Similarly there are LRF files that are only in its format. It is an opportunity to remake some of them for some kind soul.

Dale

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Good to know. Mobi was around much earlier than ePub. Similarly there are LRF files that are only in its format. It is an opportunity to remake some of them for some kind soul.

Dale

Convert the Mobi and/or LRF into ePub via Calibre and then have a go in Sigil to clean up the ePub. That would do it unless it's easier or preferred to find a different source and have a go that way.

[weatherwax]

Originally Posted by SBT

When I set off making an SQL database over the books in the library, somebody asked me the pertinent question as to the (f)utility of the exercise. I am still working on the answer, but here, at least, is a list of ~3000 books which have been submitted as .mobi-files, but not as epub. I guarantee it is not error-free; double-check that an epub edition does not exist before submitting a converted version.

Thanks for the list. Many of the books could only be posted in a couple of years (authors died after 1942).

Saw some books which are here in epub format, assume they were not caught due to spelling variations in author or book Name, So it's really worth while to cross check before going through the trouble to redo and post.

[SBT]

Originally Posted by weatherwax

Thanks for the list. Many of the books could only be posted in a couple of years (authors died after 1942).

Saw some books which are here in epub format, assume they were not caught due to spelling variations in author or book Name, So it's really worth while to cross check before going through the trouble to redo and post.

I made a cursory attempt to find authors in the library who died less than seventy years ago and posted them here.

I'm sure I've missed out on plenty of epub books, very probably for the reasons you mention (I think I found a dozen variations over Fyodor Dostojevsky)

[Prestidigitweeze]

Axel's Castle, by Edmund Wilson, seems to be available on [edit; illegal link deleted] but lacks the finesse which our members would bring to conversion prior to proofreading. It looks as though I won't be able to keep my hardcover version.

Unfortunately, that means I'll be unable to proof the results against the physical copy I formerly owned, though I could still proof the text against the pdf version on the Archive site.

(If only I could teleport my books to any MR members who wanted them.)

[SBT]

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

Axel's Castle, by Edmund Wilson, seems to be available here on archive.org but lacks the finesse which our members would bring even to conversion prior to proofreading. Would anyone care to try? It looks as though I won't be able to keep my hardcover version.

Grmf… according to wikipedia, Edmund Wilson only departed from this vale of tears in 1972.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by SBT

Grmf… according to wikipedia, Edmund Wilson only departed from this vale of tears in 1972.

Axel's Castle was published in 1931. I hadn't even thought to check Wilson's dates because the book has been available from Archive.org for such a long time. I used to have copies of his diary-derived books, The Twenties and The Thirties and thought of him as Fitzgerald's contemporary, which he was.

I also hadn't realized that even Fitz's books won't be in the public domain until 2021.

If the terms of U.S. copyright law are always the life of the author plus 70 years, then why has Axel's Castle been available on archive.org since 2005? Does that San-Francisco-based site not honor said terms in its own country?