Michael S. Hart, the founder of Project Gutenberg, died in his home on September 6th. He was 64 years old.
Hart, an early pioneer in digital publishing, was involved with eBooks since the early days of computers. He founded Project Gutenberg, one of the largest and longest running online literary projects, and he is also credited with having made the first eBook when he typed the U.S. Declaration of Independence into a computer back in 1971.
Project Gutenberg remembers him on the site: “Michael S. Hart left a major mark on the world. The invention of eBooks was not simply a technological innovation or precursor to the modern information environment. A more correct understanding is that eBooks are an efficient and effective way of unlimited free distribution of literature. Access to eBooks can thus provide opportunity for increased literacy. Literacy, and the ideas contained in literature, creates opportunity.”
Hart’s mission was to make literature available to everyone. His reason: “Learning is its own reward. Nothing I can say is better than that.”
Via Sarah Weinman.