The Bookseller reports that Bloomsbury is going to digitize and e-publish the million-page personal archive of World War II prime minister Sir Winston Churchill. The archive reportedly includes “drafts and notes for his speeches, and key correspondence and papers."
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The archive will be sold worldwide, “with prices appropriate for the broadest possible market,” in versions customized for institutions, schools, and individuals.
By the summer of 2012 the challenge will become a great deal easier, thanks to a project that will be announced on Thursday by the Churchill Archives Center in Cambridge and Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of the London-based Bloomsbury publishing house. No longer will the serious student have to journey to Cambridge from places near and far, paying for travel and a hotel, when the same end can be achieved with a few keystrokes and a fraction of the cost.
This article not only discusses the Churchill project but several issues with digitization projects in general. Good read.
The papers contain everything from Churchill's childhood letters and school reports to his final writings. They include his personal correspondence with friends and family, and his official exchanges with kings, presidents, politicians and military leaders. Some of the most memorable phrases of the twentieth century are preserved in his own drafts and speaking notes for the famous wartime speeches. The Churchill Papers comprise an estimated 1 million individual documents. In April 1995 grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the John Paul Getty Foundation purchased the Churchill Papers for the nation.
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