British columnist's question: What is the first ebook?

Over a short period of time, E-books have become almost as ubiquitous as hard books. But Allison Flood, the Guardian columnist Erison Flode, asked an interesting question: What was the first ebook?

Fred points out that when Peter James (Peter James) published his novel "Host" on two floppy disks in 1993, it was billed as "the first electronic novel in the World" and was viciously attacked as "a harbinger of catastrophe that will destroy the familiar literature." "(Of course, 21 years from now, it has become a collection of science museums.) Times have become so fast. ）

But at that time, as James told Fred, "I was absolutely ridiculed." I was accused of destroying the novel, I became a newspaper headline in Italy, and 99 of the news was negative ... A journalist even puts his computer on a wheelbarrow, pushes it to the beach, hides in his couch and reads "host".

Two years after the launch of the "host", James and Steve Jobs talked about the future of the novel at a symposium at the University of California in the United States. "I say that when e-books become easier to read than printed novels, they pop up." He told Fred. "The outrage that it provoked was astonishing. ”

"Host" is probably not the first ebook, The Oxford International Publishing Research Center (Oxford Analysys Pew for Publishing studies) Director Angues Phillips (Angus Phillips) that "the first ebook" The topic is "a lot of controversy". The important thing is "how you define the ebook, the term has only recently become common, because e-readers like the Kindle have become popular." ”

"We are no longer simply seeing e-books as text that exists on the computer or on the internet," Phillips told the Guardian. We can look at these, Project Gutenberg, which began in 1971 and has launched its tenth ebook by 1989. In the 80 's, the CD-ROM revolution ... We see that the reference books are also beginning to appear in electronic version. "The Geroril Encyclopedia" (Grolier Encyclopaedia) published an ebook in 1985, and the Oxford English Dictionary also introduced an electronic version later in 1989.

"By the year 1994, the Kindersley (Dorling Kindersley) publishing Company in Turin, Italy, launched a series of multimedia CDs in the consumer market. "Phillips said, for example, 1988 launched the" If monks had Macs ", which is a collection of e-books on floppy disks.

In the 80 's, there was also a computer adventure game based on the story, such as The Hobbit (The Hobbit) (1982), and Stephen's "Fog" (The Mist) was adapted into a full text interactive novel game and launched in 1985. "said Nick Montford, an associate professor of digital media at MIT, Nick Montfort. "So, people think Stephen's" plant "(the plant) is its first ebook and first electronic publication, which is inaccurate, in fact, there is an earlier precedent. ”

Even Robert Pinsky, the former American poet Robert Pinski, has joined the ranks of electronic publishing, introducing "1984s Mindwheel", which is "clearly labeled as an electronic novel." "Montfort said. Montfort also believes that the first large-volume electronic publication is the Bible (the Bible).

"When you start looking for the first digital publication, you often find many early projects that are important from different perspectives but have been forgotten," Monfort told Fred. ”

What he wants to say is that when you say you found the ' first ' new media publication, such as the first video game, the first ebook, etc., you need to explain the meaning of the words video games, e-books, and so on. ”

Fred talked about Professor Dene Grigar of Washington State University, who is studying the history of Electronic Literature: "Pathfinder: Archive of early Digital literature" (pathfinders:documenting experience of Early Digital Literature.)

Grigar said to Fred: "The first real electronic novel is Zhu Di Maloy (Judy Malloy)" Uncle Roger "(Uncle Roger), which was published in 1987, belongs to the serial novel, which was later included in the collection of Malloy and introduced on computers such as Apple IIe. Malloy himself described the book as a comic narrative poem. ”

Grigar is now preparing to open an electronic literature exhibition at the National University of University (Ireland Maynooth), Ireland, and held a similar exhibit at the Library of Congress last April. "Digital books represent the future. "So people are getting more and more interested in them," she said. ”