Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg, founded in 1971, is the oldest producer and distributor of free ebooks.

For more information, visit our website at:
www.gutenberg.org

Last Notes

2025-03-22 10:31:31 UTC

#OTD in 1916.
J. R. R. Tolkien and Edith Bratt marry at St Mary Immaculate Roman Catholic Church, Warwick, England. They will serve as inspiration for the fictional characters Beren and Lúthien. Tolkien leaves for military service in France at the beginning of June.
J.R.R. Tolkien at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/42379
#books #literature
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/205/605/000/890/449/original/6e500ff48120a3e8.jpg

2024-03-12 13:38:06 UTC

- reply

@npub1038…gl4y Thanks, please see our previous post about this subject https://mastodon.social/@gutenberg_org/111249679213147131

2023-10-31 10:49:12 UTC

"A poet is the most unpoetical of anything in existence; because he has no identity — he is continually informing — and filling some other body."
Letter to Richard Woodhouse
British Poet John Keats was born #OTD in 1795. He was a romantic lyric poet who devoted his short life to the perfection of a poetry marked by vivid imagery, great sensuous appeal, and an attempt to express a philosophy through classical legend. via @Britannica
John Keats at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/935
#books #poetry
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/329/217/564/658/203/original/68c4e7a49b57ca2d.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/329/226/077/212/582/original/224dbfe08fb818c9.jpg

2023-10-07 10:43:54 UTC

"The world hid its head in the sands of convention, so that by seeing nothing it might avoid Truth."
The Well Of Loneliness
English writer Radclyffe Hall died #OTD in 1943. She is best known for the novel The Well of Loneliness (1928), which created a scandal and was banned for a time in Britain for its treatment of lesbianism. via @Britannica
Books by Radclyffe Hall at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/45238
#books #literature
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/193/302/943/716/752/original/37f114396c34819f.png
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/193/305/639/551/250/original/422e20c55b3437a3.jpg

2023-09-18 10:04:57 UTC

"Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed."
The Rambler (1750–1752)
Samuel Johnson was born #OTD in 1709. English critic, biographer, essayist, poet, and lexicographer, regarded as one of the greatest figures of 18th-century life and letters. Johnson once characterized literary biographies as “mournful narratives,” and he believed that he lived “a life radically wretched.” via @Briatannica
Books by Samuel Johnson at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/297
#books #literature
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/085/566/752/887/918/original/af0f065d76e2a4fc.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/085/570/880/811/970/original/a14909d1f65ba7b9.jpg

2023-09-14 10:06:42 UTC

"A physical delineation of nature terminates at the point where the sphere of intellect begins, and a new world of mind is opened to our view. It marks the limit, but does not pass it."
Kosmos
Alexander von Humboldt was born #OTD in 1769. His quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography, while his advocacy of long-term systematic geophysical measurement pioneered modern geomagnetic & meteorological monitoring.
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1995
#science
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/062/922/347/323/296/original/02331865a488be4f.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/062/929/635/241/171/original/2b973ea230bb4b26.jpg

2023-09-01 11:49:05 UTC

- reply

@npub18zt…3eka thanks for sharing!

2023-09-01 10:51:02 UTC

"What hope lies anywhere save in the widest freedom to inquire and expound — always with respect to the rights and opinions of others?"
Time, Technology...
Charles Austin Beard died #OTD in 1948. His emphasis on the dynamics of socioeconomic conflict and change and his analysis of motivational factors in the founding of institutions made him one of the most influential American historians of his time. via @Britannica
Books by Charles Beard at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/7052
#books #literature
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/989/480/607/266/771/original/a1a77214acb69bb5.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/989/484/891/254/596/original/994fc6724977efd5.jpg

2023-08-30 15:35:05 UTC

"Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose — a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye..."
Frankenstein, 1818
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was born #OTD in 1797. She met the young Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1812 and eloped with him to France in July 1814. After her husband’s death in 1822, she returned to England and devoted herself to publicizing his writings and to educating their only surviving child, Percy.
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/61
#books #literature
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/979/265/322/137/380/original/c80e5032ac8f5ce0.png
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/979/275/722/828/214/original/0ed80c172ac53279.jpg

2023-08-26 10:58:05 UTC

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is approved by the National Constituent Assembly of France #OTD in 1789.
The Declaration was initially drafted by the Marquis de Lafayette, but the majority of the final draft came from the Abbé Sieyès. Influenced by the doctrine of natural right, human rights are held to be universal: valid at all times and in every place. It became the basis for a nation of free individuals protected equally by the law. via @npub1kvn…hm73
#constitution
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/955/547/027/472/212/original/83ef080b12572368.jpg

2023-08-26 10:35:01 UTC

James Franck was born #OTD in 1882.
He won the 1925 Nobel Prize for Physics with Gustav Hertz "for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom".
His work included the Franck–Hertz experiment, an important confirmation of the Bohr model of the atom. He promoted the careers of women in physics, notably Lise Meitner, Hertha Sponer and Hilde Levi. via @npub1kvn…hm73
#science #physics
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/955/425/147/571/161/original/3469a89a9fa22b4e.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/955/456/654/238/924/original/4781288e8b5a8a4b.jpg

2023-08-26 09:31:10 UTC

"The total possible consciousness may be split into parts which co-exist but mutually ignore each other."
The Principles of Psychology (1890)
William James died #OTD in 1910. James is considered to be a leading thinker of the late 19th century, one of the most influential philosophers of the United States, and the "Father of American psychology". via @npub1kvn…hm73
Books by William James at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/325
#books #psychology
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/955/192/149/729/630/original/ce2600002d9a19c8.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/955/197/370/643/920/original/b4e50c03e1426c5c.jpg

2023-08-13 09:05:14 UTC

John Logie Baird was born #OTD in 1888. He was the first man to televise pictures of objects in motion.
He demonstrated the world's first live working television system on 26 January 1926. He initially used a scan rate of 5 pictures per second, improving this to 12.5 pictures per second c.1927. It was the first demonstration of a television system that could scan and display live moving images with tonal graduation. via @npub1kvn…hm73
#science #technology
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/881/493/173/688/201/original/9b089beb95601bfa.png

2023-08-12 09:54:04 UTC

"I have an epic, not a dramatic nature. My disposition and my desires call for peace to spin my thread, for a steady rhythm in life and art."
Nobel Banquet Speech (10 December 1929)
Thomas Mann died #OTD in 1955. German novelist and essayist whose early novels—Buddenbrooks (1900), Der Tod in Venedig (1912; Death in Venice), and Der Zauberberg (1924; The Magic Mountain)—earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929.
Books by Thomas Mann at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/4200
#books #literature
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/876/016/783/104/580/original/6cfc9f447e89bda1.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/876/023/980/550/298/original/9cff880c41d8cb1c.jpg

2023-08-06 09:11:08 UTC

Gregorio Ricci-Curbastro died #OTD in 1925.
He is most famous as the discoverer of tensor calculus which then became the "lingua franca" of the subsequent theory of Albert Einstein's general relativity, as is shown in a letter written by Albert Einstein to Ricci-Curbastro's nephew. via @npub1kvn…hm73
#science #mathematics
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/841/874/897/102/675/original/d20cac67c155a11b.png
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/841/886/962/931/229/original/8f076d07f7b37e3b.jpg

2023-08-05 10:46:06 UTC

"I look into the faces of the people passing by,
The glad ones and the sad ones, and the lined with misery,
And I wonder why the sorrow or the twinkle in the eye;
But the pale and weary faces are the ones that trouble me."
The Path to Home (1919)
Edgar A. Guest died #OTD in 1959. He became known as the People's Poet. His poems often had an inspirational and optimistic view of everyday life. via @npub1kvn…hm73
Books by Edgar A. Guest at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/182
#books #literature
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/836/593/447/632/751/original/273a376787923294.jpg

2023-08-05 10:39:07 UTC

"What each individual wills is obstructed by everyone else, and what emerges is something that no one willed."
Letter to Jean-Richard Bloch
Friedrich Engels died #OTD in 1895. He was the closest collaborator of Karl Marx in the foundation of modern communism. They coauthored The Communist Manifesto (1848), and Engels edited the second and third volumes of Das Kapital after Marx’s death.
Books by Friedrich Engels at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/47
#books #literature
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/836/545/244/991/461/original/4955cbaf9fee65f8.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/836/549/304/552/500/original/e17041402d04c4af.jpg