Harvard Classics Series Now Complete

RWood · 07-26-2007, 11:54 PM

The final three volumes of the Harvard Classics (HC) series have now been posted and Bob Russell asked me to explain a bit about the series and the production of the series.

First, for those of you not familiar with the HC, they were assembled under the Editorship of Charles W. Eliot, past President of Harvard College. Called “the five foot shelf of books” they consist of 49 volumes drawn from the greatest writing then available in English. The subjects range from travel, to science, to myth, to biography, to folk tales, to plays, to history, to religion, to poetry, to … every area of civilization and humanity. Originally published from 1909 to 1917, it stayed in print for many years and is still available used for prices upwards to $2,500.

On the Internet there have been several sources available that offered all or part of the series. The Portable Harvard Classics started and posted a several volumes before going dark. Recently another site has offered PDF files of the first seven or so volumes divided into individual books within each volume for a fee. Each book does have unique original cover art and he says the cost is just to cover his bandwidth.

The only full HC set until now has been at Bartleby. They have the complete series on line for no charge. They also have extensive advertising surrounding the text and the site will leave a number of tracking cookies and adware on your computer if your security settings are not high enough. They also have many other great reference works available on line.

Some individual books and one complete volume are also available at Project Gutenberg.

For sources I used available indexes of the series, texts from Project Gutenberg, electronic copies of some works that were emailed to me, and imaged copies of the series from the Internet Archives. They have PDF copies of most of the volumes along with sometimes questionable quality OCR versions of the images.

For proofing the text I used the PDF images, Bartleby, and several books I have around here including my late Uncle’s old college text of English poetry. Most work was done in MS Word (often using Stingo’s Word Macro) and then transferred to BookDesigner 5.0 (BD) via DOC, RTF, or HTML depending upon the source material. In BD the links for the notes were created and checked, the titles and subtitles fixed, and the front pages arranged. On most volumes the series seal is included on the title page as well as the MobileRead logo and the “mobileread.com” name.

The covers were created in Corel Draw and feature the Harvard seal in the center with the title above it in Wilke font. At the bottom of the page is the MobileRead logo again and the “mobileread.com” name.

The series is now complete for the Sony Reader BBeB/LRF users. I will post the missing volumes for the MobiPocket users by the end of the weekend. The first volume posted at MobileRead was on 15 April 07 so the whole project took about three and one-half months.

I have learned a lot over the course of creating these volumes and I want to thank all of you for your assistance, support, and karma. Special thanks to Bob Russell for encouraging me throughout the process and to Alex for hosting the books.

UncleDuke · 07-27-2007, 11:38 AM

thank you

sic · 07-27-2007, 01:21 PM

Thanks. It was a brilliant idea to start converting this collection.

Slowhanz · 07-27-2007, 01:53 PM

I want to add my thanks for all of your work. I've only had my Sony Reader for a few weeks, but what a treat to have the HC available. Bravo!

G

RWood · 07-27-2007, 03:09 PM

I have added 17 more Mobi/PRC formatted titles and will post the 12 remaining shortly so that all may have a complete set of the Harvard Classics.

Steven Lyle Jordan · 07-27-2007, 03:37 PM

Fantastic work! Posterity owes you a debt!

BKeeper · 07-27-2007, 09:08 PM

Thanks Rwood!!

The HC is an impressive collection, a piece of History itself. None of it has lost relevance.
I for one was planing on reading it but the Bartleby edition was really unpleasant.
Sadly, nowadays education is conceived by too many as an abstract re elaboration of knowledge, detached from history, or context.
ducating through the great books of our time is clearly much more demanding. But in my opinion it's well worth it.
It reminds me of Adler's Paideia proposal.

Anyway, thanks again.

RWood · 07-28-2007, 12:16 AM

The Harvard Classics series is now complete in both Sony/BBeB and Mobi/PRC formats.

The enclosed (letter size) PDF is a short checklist and index to all the volumes. I posted it before in another thread. Sorry for the duplication.

grimo1re · 07-29-2007, 09:52 AM

You rock!

pruss · 07-29-2007, 04:34 PM

This is great!

One issue: It's looking to me like the tables of contents in the mobi files aren't hyperlinked to the text. I may be missing something (I am not actually looking at it in Mobipocket, but via a mobi2html converter that I am writing.)

JSWolf · 07-29-2007, 04:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pruss

This is great!

One issue: It's looking to me like the tables of contents in the mobi files aren't hyperlinked to the text. I may be missing something (I am not actually looking at it in Mobipocket, but via a mobi2html converter that I am writing.)

I just took a look and I know the problem. Book Designer makes nice inline ToC for LRF. But it doesn't do the same for the MobiPocket format. So since the books don't have ToC links internally, the Mobi version needs to have ToC type links put into the actual file given that Book Designer does not put in inline ToC for Mobi.

Patricia · 07-29-2007, 10:22 PM

This is a great achievement and a wonderful resource. Thanks for making it available to us, RWood.

rmeister0 · 07-30-2007, 11:18 AM

Congratulations on completing an enormous task.

Consider taking a vacation

pruss · 07-30-2007, 04:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I just took a look and I know the problem. Book Designer makes nice inline ToC for LRF. But it doesn't do the same for the MobiPocket format. So since the books don't have ToC links internally, the Mobi version needs to have ToC type links put into the actual file given that Book Designer does not put in inline ToC for Mobi.

Ah. This is where the html0 source would help, because it would be fairly easy to script the generation of a nice ToC. The scripts that I used for generating HTML do recover some of the ToCs as hyperlinks, but not all.

JSWolf · 08-01-2007, 12:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pruss

Ah. This is where the html0 source would help, because it would be fairly easy to script the generation of a nice ToC. The scripts that I used for generating HTML do recover some of the ToCs as hyperlinks, but not all.

You might be best off going from the LRF seeing as they do have ToC.

07-26-2007, 11:54 PM	#1
RWood Technogeezer Posts: 7,233 Karma: 1601464 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Virginia, USA Device: Sony PRS-500	Harvard Classics Series Now Complete The final three volumes of the Harvard Classics (HC) series have now been posted and Bob Russell asked me to explain a bit about the series and the production of the series. First, for those of you not familiar with the HC, they were assembled under the Editorship of Charles W. Eliot, past President of Harvard College. Called “the five foot shelf of books” they consist of 49 volumes drawn from the greatest writing then available in English. The subjects range from travel, to science, to myth, to biography, to folk tales, to plays, to history, to religion, to poetry, to … every area of civilization and humanity. Originally published from 1909 to 1917, it stayed in print for many years and is still available used for prices upwards to $2,500. On the Internet there have been several sources available that offered all or part of the series. The Portable Harvard Classics started and posted a several volumes before going dark. Recently another site has offered PDF files of the first seven or so volumes divided into individual books within each volume for a fee. Each book does have unique original cover art and he says the cost is just to cover his bandwidth. The only full HC set until now has been at Bartleby. They have the complete series on line for no charge. They also have extensive advertising surrounding the text and the site will leave a number of tracking cookies and adware on your computer if your security settings are not high enough. They also have many other great reference works available on line. Some individual books and one complete volume are also available at Project Gutenberg. For sources I used available indexes of the series, texts from Project Gutenberg, electronic copies of some works that were emailed to me, and imaged copies of the series from the Internet Archives. They have PDF copies of most of the volumes along with sometimes questionable quality OCR versions of the images. For proofing the text I used the PDF images, Bartleby, and several books I have around here including my late Uncle’s old college text of English poetry. Most work was done in MS Word (often using Stingo’s Word Macro) and then transferred to BookDesigner 5.0 (BD) via DOC, RTF, or HTML depending upon the source material. In BD the links for the notes were created and checked, the titles and subtitles fixed, and the front pages arranged. On most volumes the series seal is included on the title page as well as the MobileRead logo and the “mobileread.com” name. The covers were created in Corel Draw and feature the Harvard seal in the center with the title above it in Wilke font. At the bottom of the page is the MobileRead logo again and the “mobileread.com” name. The series is now complete for the Sony Reader BBeB/LRF users. I will post the missing volumes for the MobiPocket users by the end of the weekend. The first volume posted at MobileRead was on 15 April 07 so the whole project took about three and one-half months. I have learned a lot over the course of creating these volumes and I want to thank all of you for your assistance, support, and karma. Special thanks to Bob Russell for encouraging me throughout the process and to Alex for hosting the books.

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07-27-2007, 11:38 AM	#2
UncleDuke books & doughnuts Posts: 882 Karma: 37857 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: usa Device: sony reader, kindle2	thank you

07-27-2007, 01:21 PM	#3
sic Addict Posts: 202 Karma: 692 Join Date: Oct 2006 Device: SONY reader	Thanks. It was a brilliant idea to start converting this collection.

07-27-2007, 01:53 PM	#4
Slowhanz Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2007 Device: PRS-500, Zire 72	I want to add my thanks for all of your work. I've only had my Sony Reader for a few weeks, but what a treat to have the HC available. Bravo! G

07-27-2007, 03:09 PM	#5
RWood Technogeezer Posts: 7,233 Karma: 1601464 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Virginia, USA Device: Sony PRS-500	I have added 17 more Mobi/PRC formatted titles and will post the 12 remaining shortly so that all may have a complete set of the Harvard Classics.

07-27-2007, 03:37 PM	#6
Steven Lyle Jordan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,478 Karma: 5171130 Join Date: Jan 2006 Device: none	Fantastic work! Posterity owes you a debt!

07-27-2007, 09:08 PM	#7
BKeeper Groupie Posts: 186 Karma: 728 Join Date: Jul 2006 Device: Kindle PW	Thanks Rwood!! The HC is an impressive collection, a piece of History itself. None of it has lost relevance. I for one was planing on reading it but the Bartleby edition was really unpleasant. Sadly, nowadays education is conceived by too many as an abstract re elaboration of knowledge, detached from history, or context. ducating through the great books of our time is clearly much more demanding. But in my opinion it's well worth it. It reminds me of Adler's Paideia proposal. Anyway, thanks again.

07-29-2007, 09:52 AM	#9
grimo1re Geekette Posts: 435 Karma: 3335 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: NSW, Australia Device: Sony Reader PRS500, PocketBook 360	You rock!

07-29-2007, 04:34 PM	#10
pruss Evangelist Posts: 461 Karma: 819417 Join Date: Nov 2004	This is great! One issue: It's looking to me like the tables of contents in the mobi files aren't hyperlinked to the text. I may be missing something (I am not actually looking at it in Mobipocket, but via a mobi2html converter that I am writing.)

07-29-2007, 10:22 PM	#12
Patricia Reader Posts: 11,504 Karma: 8720163 Join Date: May 2007 Location: South Wales, UK Device: Sony PRS-500, PRS-505, Asus EEEpc 4G	This is a great achievement and a wonderful resource. Thanks for making it available to us, RWood.

07-30-2007, 11:18 AM	#13
rmeister0 Addict Posts: 270 Karma: 298 Join Date: Mar 2005	Congratulations on completing an enormous task. Consider taking a vacation