Michael S. Hart, e-book inventor and Project Gutenberg founder, dies at 64

There’s some sad news popping out of Illinois today, where Michael S. Hart, the e-book inventor who founded Project Gutenberg, has died on the age of 64. Hart’s literary journey began in 1971, when he digitized and distributed his first text, after being inspired by a free printed copy of the Declaration of Independence he found on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. That very same year, the Tacoma, Washington native founded Project Gutenberg — a web based library that aims to “encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks” and to “break down the bars of ignorance and illiteracy.” By 1987, he’d already digitized a complete of 313 books, including works from Homer, Shakespeare and the Bible, before recruiting more volunteers to assist out. As of this June, Hart’s pioneering library housed about 36,000 works in its collection (most of which might be within the public domain), with a normal of fifty new books added each week. Described by Project Gutenberg as an “ardent technologist and futurist,” Hart leaves a literary legacy perhaps best summed up in his own words. “Something about eBooks that the majority people haven’t thought much is that eBooks are first thing that we’re all ready to have up to we wish apart from air,” he wrote in July. “Consider that for a moment and also you realize we’re inside the right job.” Michael S. Hart is survived by his mother and brother.