[Next project] The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, by Howard Pyle

[Hendrik Kaiber]

I been wanting to produce The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, by Howard Pyle, for a while, so I picked this for my next project.

Project Gutenberg has a usable transcription. I couldn't find scans for the exact edition of the text, so I picked another one from TIA. The text itself seems to be same (I didn't find any differences, at least), except with the part divisions and bridgeheads removed.

Pyle himself illustrated this work, but unfortunately none of his illustrations would be appropriate for a cover, so I'm thinking of using this as a cover, made for another Robin Hood novel, by one of Pyle's students. If this isn't approved there a few others from the same source.

If the project is approved, should I restore the part divisions and bridgeheads? I'll also remove the illustrations.

Scans

Transcription

(Empty) repo

—Hendrik

[Alex Cabal]

OK, Emma will manage with Vince reviewing. Emma can you answer Hendrik's
questions?

On 7/4/26 1:36 PM, Hendrik Kaiber wrote:
> I been wanting to produce /The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood/, by

> Howard Pyle, for a while, so I picked this for my next project.
>
> Project Gutenberg has a usable transcription. I couldn't find scans for
> the exact edition of the text, so I picked another one from TIA. The
> text itself seems to be same (I didn't find any differences, at least),
> except with the part divisions and bridgeheads removed.
>
> Pyle himself illustrated this work, but unfortunately none of his
> illustrations would be appropriate for a cover, so I'm thinking of using

> this <https://standardebooks.org/artworks/n-c-wyeth/robin-meets-maid-
> marian> as a cover, made for another Robin Hood novel, by one of Pyle's

> students. If this isn't approved there a few others from the same source.
>
> If the project is approved, should I restore the part divisions and
> bridgeheads? I'll also remove the illustrations.
>

> Scans <https://archive.org/details/merryadventureso00pylerich>
> Transcription <https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/10148>
> (Empty) repo <https://github.com/HendrikBK/howard-pyle_the-merry-
> adventures-of-robin-hood>
>
> —Hendrik
>
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[Emma Sweeney]

Great art choice! I've updated the art DB.

It looks like other modern edition have part divisions and bridgeheads, so go ahead and restore them. Make sure to use the shorter bridgeheads in the body matter, not from the Table of Contents.

Emma

[Hendrik Kaiber]

I started the project, and although the scans and transcription clearly have the same work, there does seem to be some small differences. A few titles are slightly different (Chapter 5-1 is "Robin Hood aids a Sorrowful Knight" in the transcription and "Robin Hood aideth a Sorrowful Knight" in the scans). This is not surprising, since they are not the same edition. The ideal solution is use the scans used for the PG transcription, but I'm yet to locate it. When I noticed a difference, do you think I should prefer the scans or the transcription? 

Another question: After chapter 8-2, there is a single page "epilogue" (see here). There is also a named epilogue, which I think should get the epilogue semantics. Do you think this single page "epilogue" should also get semantics? I'm not sure. This short epilogue is also missing the last paragraph, which I'm thinking I should restore. Do you agree?

—Hendrik

[Emma Sweeney]

It looks like the transcription is based off of a special 1955 junior deluxe edition of the The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, so that may explain why divisions were removed. This makes me question if there were other changes within the text (like aideth to aids) to make it easier for children to read. Because the book was published in the the 1950s, you won't be able to use the page scans (if you find scans at all) since the book isn't in the US public domain. 

It may be a lot of work, but I think you should strictly follow the page scans. You will have to make sure the transcription didn't bowdlerize text for the sake for young readers.

Emma

[Hendrik Kaiber]

Thank you Emma, I think this is the edition used, since the titlepage is the same. Do you think there will be an issue with possible copyright infringement? If the scans aren't PD, this means any transcription based on them also isn't, correct? As far as I can tell, it was considered PD by Gutenberg because it was a reprint of the original text, but they have been wrong in the past. 

I haven't compared the whole book yet, but the only difference I found so far is a missing paragraph break in the prologue and chapter 1-1, which is probably as mistake by the transcriber. The text also matches my own 2016 edition, which has the "aideth" and appears to be a reprint of the original text, with only changes to punctuation. The actual language in both the transcription and the scans seems to be the same, with the "aideth" being a case of modernizing a archaic word but not changing the content itself.

Unless you or Alex think this transcription is not safe, I'll proceed with the project, paying attention to any differences I might find. Most of them will likely be from mistakes in the transcription rather than material changes to the text, however.

—Hendrik

[Emma Sweeney]

It doesn't look like it went through Distributed Proofreaders. I'll let Alex decide whether this transcription is okay to use.

Emma

[Hendrik Kaiber]

Upon further research, I located this edition which might be the one used for the transcription (the titlepage is similar). It has no date, so it is not possible to say with certain whether it is out of copyright or not. PG also has another transcription, which seems to be from the same work of the one I linked in the first post. 

The strange thing is that this edition uses "aideth" instead of "aids." I couldn't find an actual edition that uses the modern form "aids," which makes me wonder if this was actually a change made by the transcriber, and not present in the actual printed text. If that is the case, he might also have truncated the two epilogues, which would explain the difference with the scans.

Considering the date which the transcription was first published (2003), it might be case of a work produced when the standards in the site were more lacking than today.  The ideal solution would be to produce an edition with text which we know is pre-1930, but that might require a new PG project, which would take time, and is not something I think should be rushed.

Overall, a confusing situation, and I think we should be certain that the material is actually usable before proceeding. What is your opinion, Alex?

—Hendrik

[Alex Cabal]

We must find an edition pre 1930 to compare against. If the PG
transcription is of a special junior abridgment/modernization then I
would rather not have that, we should host the original instead.

If that means having to adapt the PG transcription, then you could do
that if you think it's reasonable to do. If you think PGDP should make a
whole new edition then we should probably put this project aside for now.

On 7/7/26 8:58 AM, Hendrik Kaiber wrote:
> Upon further research, I located this <https://archive.org/details/
> merryadventureso0000pyle> edition which might be the one used for the

> transcription (the titlepage is similar). It has no date, so it is not
> possible to say with certain whether it is out of copyright or not. PG

> also has another transcription <https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/964>,

> which seems to be from the same work of the one I linked in the first post.
>
> The strange thing is that this edition uses "aideth" instead of "aids."
> I couldn't find an actual edition that uses the modern form "aids,"
> which makes me wonder if this was actually a change made by the
> transcriber, and not present in the actual printed text. If that is the
> case, he might also have truncated the two epilogues, which would
> explain the difference with the scans.
>
> Considering the date which the transcription was first published (2003),
> it might be case of a work produced when the standards in the site were
> more lacking than today.  The ideal solution would be to produce an
> edition with text which we know is pre-1930, but that might require a
> new PG project, which would take time, and is not something I think
> should be rushed.
>
> Overall, a confusing situation, and I think we should be certain that
> the material is actually usable before proceeding. What is your opinion,
> Alex?
>
> —Hendrik
> On Monday, July 6, 2026 at 11:27:15 PM UTC-3 Emma Sweeney wrote:
>
> It doesn't look like it went through Distributed Proofreaders. I'll
> let Alex decide whether this transcription is okay to use.
>
> Emma
>

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[Hendrik Kaiber]

The changes required to adapt the transcription to match the scans probably won't be too much, but I'll only know which ones I have to do if I compare the entire text side by side, at which point I might as well make a new transcription from scratch. I would rather not do this because the quality will certainly suffer.

I think I'll put this project on hold for now and start a PGDP project for a pre-1930 edition, this way we can be certain of the PD status of both the scans and the transcription. So please remove the project from the list and I'll pick another one in the meantime.

—Hendrik

[Alex Cabal]

OK!

On 7/7/26 3:58 PM, Hendrik Kaiber wrote:
> The changes required to adapt the transcription to match the scans
> probably won't be too much, but I'll only know which ones I have to do
> if I compare the entire text side by side, at which point I might as
> well make a new transcription from scratch. I would rather not do this
> because the quality will certainly suffer.
>
> I think I'll put this project on hold for now and start a PGDP project
> for a pre-1930 edition, this way we can be certain of the PD status of
> both the scans and the transcription. So please remove the project from
> the list and I'll pick another one in the meantime.
>
> —Hendrik
>
> On Tuesday, July 7, 2026 at 5:49:37 PM UTC-3 Alex Cabal wrote:
>
> We must find an edition pre 1930 to compare against. If the PG
> transcription is of a special junior abridgment/modernization then I
> would rather not have that, we should host the original instead.
>
> If that means having to adapt the PG transcription, then you could do
> that if you think it's reasonable to do. If you think PGDP should
> make a
> whole new edition then we should probably put this project aside for
> now.
>
> On 7/7/26 8:58 AM, Hendrik Kaiber wrote:
> > Upon further research, I located this <https://archive.org/

> details/ <https://archive.org/details/>

> > merryadventureso0000pyle> edition which might be the one used for
> the
> > transcription (the titlepage is similar). It has no date, so it
> is not
> > possible to say with certain whether it is out of copyright or
> not. PG
> > also has another transcription <https://www.gutenberg.org/

> ebooks/964 <https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/964>>,

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