Phil Gyford is blogging the Diary of Samuel Pepys. (Link thanks to Keywords). What a fantastic application of this medium.
Imagine if there were some idle, but careful and dedicated hands that were willing to blog the diaries of other fascinating people of the past. I can think of dozens of figures in modern East Asian history alone whose diaries I wouldn’t mind skimming in my RSS feeder while eating breakfast…in small irregular doses. Not all of them are likely to be as full of interesting observations as Pepys, despite their fame and importance, but I’m sure we can all think of a few that are.
UPDATE: Kerim has found all sorts of other sites which are posting books in the form of blogs, including some other diaries.
I have had the same thought, but I was never sure about copyright. I know that 50 years after the author’s death the work itself is no longer covered, but a diary isn’t like a novel — it has to be edited and such, and I wouldn’t want to step on someone’s hard work in that area (and I don’t have access to any original diaries to edit myself).
if you know how all this stuff works, though, and want a partner to work with on something like this, let me know!
Hey Matt, you have already demonstrated considerable innovation in this area by blogging your Soseki translation. I would love to do a project like this, but I promised myself “no new projects” until I pass my General exams for the PhD here…
If you ever do your own project and need hosting (like at chinajapan.org, opentranslations.com, froginawell.net or elsewhere) let me know!