[First Project] The Oakdale Affair by Edgar Rice Burroughs

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Dave Roberts

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Jan 3, 2026, 2:33:38 PMJan 3
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I'd like to try a first project. From the list of suggested first projects (here: https://standardebooks.org/contribute/wanted-ebooks), it seems like The Oakdale Affair by Edgar Rice Burroughs would be a good one to try.

I would be looking to use the text from Project Gutenberg, here:
cross-checked against the scan at archive.org, here:

I did notice that the scan is relatively new (the Introduction is dated 2002), which suggests that it was also made from a previous scan. There doesn't seem to be another scan available on archive.org, so if someone has suggestions for where I might find a better (earlier) scan, that would be appreciated.

One question about the process after reading the Step by Step instructions on the web site... do I create the Git repo under my own personal account and transfer it to Standard Ebooks later or does Standard Ebooks create a repo for me under the Standard Ebooks account? In looking at the git repos for various books already finished in the Standard Ebooks catalog and they all (so far as I have checked) have repos under the Standard Ebooks account.

-- Dave Roberts

Alex Cabal

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Jan 3, 2026, 2:37:24 PMJan 3
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Can you un-borrow that page scan so I can check the copyright date?

You would create the repo under your personal account. Once the ebook is
finished we clone it into our organization account and yours can be deleted.
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Dave Roberts

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Jan 3, 2026, 2:38:41 PMJan 3
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Done. But there is no copyright on the new edition.

Dave Roberts

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Jan 3, 2026, 2:43:02 PMJan 3
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There doesn’t seem to be anything on Google Books, either. It’s mentioned in a couple of books analyzing ERB’s total works, but doesn’t seem to have the text itself.
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Alex Cabal

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Jan 3, 2026, 2:49:18 PMJan 3
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OK, you can go ahead and work on this.

As you noted there's no copyright date on the page scans so we can't
really use them. We have to be sure that the scans are in the public
domain era and don't contain changes that happened after.

But that's OK, you can just work on the book based on PG's transcription
without referring to scans.

This one is kind of weird in that it only has one chapter... you can put
the editor's note into an endnote attached to the chapter number.

I also see one instance of verse, see the manual for copy and paste
CSS/HTML.

Make sure to read the Standard Ebooks Manual of Style before starting,
as you won't know what to fix if you haven't read the standards. In
particular, please closely review the semantics, high level patterns,
and typography sections:

https://standardebooks.org/manual

https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/4-semantics

https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/7-high-level-structural-patterns

https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/8-typography

The step by step guide will take you from start to finish:

https://standardebooks.org/contribute/producing-an-ebook-step-by-step

This page on common issues in older books may be useful:

https://standardebooks.org/contribute/how-tos/common-issues-when-working-on-public-domain-ebooks

Please email often if you have any questions at all. Our standards are
well-established so there is probably already a standard for formatting
whatever problem you've encountered.

When you're ready, email back with a link to your Github repository so
that I can assign you a manager and reviewer.

Have fun! :)


On 1/3/26 1:38 PM, Dave Roberts wrote:
> Done. But there is no copyright on the new edition.
>
> On Saturday, January 3, 2026 at 1:37:24 PM UTC-6 Alex Cabal wrote:
>
> Can you un-borrow that page scan so I can check the copyright date?
>
> You would create the repo under your personal account. Once the
> ebook is
> finished we clone it into our organization account and yours can be
> deleted.
>
> On 1/3/26 1:33 PM, Dave Roberts wrote:
> > I'd like to try a first project. From the list of suggested first
> > projects (here: https://standardebooks.org/contribute/wanted-
> ebooks <https://standardebooks.org/contribute/wanted-ebooks>), it
> > seems like The Oakdale Affair by Edgar Rice Burroughs would be a
> good
> > one to try.
> >
> > I would be looking to use the text from Project Gutenberg, here:
> > https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/363 <https://www.gutenberg.org/
> ebooks/363>
> > cross-checked against the scan at archive.org <http://
> archive.org>, here:
> > https://archive.org/details/oakdaleaffair0000edga/page/10/
> mode/2up <https://archive.org/details/oakdaleaffair0000edga/page/10/
> mode/2up>
> >
> > I did notice that the scan is relatively new (the Introduction is
> dated
> > 2002), which suggests that it was also made from a previous scan.
> There
> > doesn't seem to be another scan available on archive.org <http://
> archive.org>, so if someone
> > has suggestions for where I might find a better (earlier) scan, that
> > would be appreciated.
> >
> > One question about the process after reading the Step by Step
> > instructions on the web site... do I create the Git repo under my
> own
> > personal account and transfer it to Standard Ebooks later or does
> > Standard Ebooks create a repo for me under the Standard Ebooks
> account?
> > In looking at the git repos for various books already finished in
> the
> > Standard Ebooks catalog and they all (so far as I have checked) have
> > repos under the Standard Ebooks account.
> >
> > -- Dave Roberts
> >
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> > Groups "Standard Ebooks" group.
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> send
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Dave Roberts

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Jan 3, 2026, 2:52:42 PMJan 3
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Sounds good. Per the question in the original email from me, do I create the Git repo in my own Github account or does Standard Ebooks create one for me under your account? If under my account, do I transfer it to Standard Ebooks when done?

— Dave
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Alex Cabal

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Jan 3, 2026, 2:59:58 PMJan 3
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You would create the repo under your personal account. Once the ebook is
finished we clone it into our organization account and yours can be
deleted.

Dave Roberts

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Jan 3, 2026, 3:00:43 PMJan 3
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Perfect, thanks.
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Robin Whittleton

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Jan 3, 2026, 3:03:48 PMJan 3
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Might be worth pointing out that Wikisource also don’t have a scan, but have it split into ten chapters. The boundaries there seem realistic. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Oakdale_Affair.

-Robin

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Dave Roberts

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Jan 3, 2026, 3:04:54 PMJan 3
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I just found this scan:

It appears to be a 1977 republishing of the original 1918 copyright. It does not seem to claim a new, 1977, copyright.

— Dave

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Dave Roberts

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Jan 3, 2026, 3:06:43 PMJan 3
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Hi Robin,

Realistic in what sense? Are you suggesting breaking the document into multiple files according to those divisions used by Wikisource? Is that just so I’m not working with one really large file because it’s all one chapter (odd that Burroughs did that, BTW)?

— Dave

Alex Cabal

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Jan 3, 2026, 3:07:43 PMJan 3
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OK, that's a good find, exactly what we need.

You can use those scans. I see the scans are divided into more chapters
like Robin noted, so you can divide our edition into multiple chapters
too. Then the editor's note is no longer necessary.

Please send a link to your repo once you start.

On 1/3/26 2:04 PM, Dave Roberts wrote:
> I just found this scan:
> https://annas-archive.li/slow_download/
> bd95a30a86a02974637df0903ada2577/0/2 <https://annas-archive.li/
> slow_download/bd95a30a86a02974637df0903ada2577/0/2>
> standardebooks/ADF90660-4293-461A-9068-9828EDDA1BC4%40gmail.com
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/
> ADF90660-4293-461A-9068-9828EDDA1BC4%40gmail.com?
> utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.

Dave Roberts

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Jan 3, 2026, 4:08:40 PMJan 3
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Ah, you’re right about the multiple chapters. Overwhelmed by my joy in having found what seemed like a good scan, I hadn’t noticed that. OK, I’ll follow those divisions.

Dave Roberts

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Jan 3, 2026, 10:09:14 PMJan 3
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I’m at the Typogrify section of the Step-by-Step guide. Specifically, I’m looking through the checklist in that document and in Style Manual, section 8. Specifically, I have questions about section 8.1.4. When I split the text, following the lead of the page scans, I inserted <h2>Chapter …</h2> headings and ran the “se split-file…” command. All that worked well. But now section 8.1.4 is suggesting to me that I really want to eliminate “Chapter” and use roman numerals for all of the chapter headings. Is that what I want? Or should I follow the direction of the scan and have “Chapter One,” “Chapter Two,” etc? I noticed that after the automatic processing up through this point, there is a <title> tag in the head with roman numerals in it. Should the text in the <title> tag in the head and the <h2> tag in the body match?

Vince

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Jan 3, 2026, 11:26:12 PMJan 3
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First, as Alex requested, please send a link to your repo, then Alex can assign a manager to the project that will answer any questions you have.

SEMoS isn’t suggesting—it’s the law. :) If SEMoS says do it, that’s what we do, regardless of what is in the scans. IOW, do what 8.1.4 says. You’ll find the same thing, e.g., when it comes to italics—SEMoS’ rules for italics apply regardless of what is in the scans.

Yes, the title should match, but se build-title will take care of that when you get to that step.

Dave Roberts

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Jan 4, 2026, 8:44:08 AMJan 4
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Hi Vince,

My apologies. I missed the request for the repo link. Here: https://github.com/dgr/edgar-rice-burroughs_the-oakdale-affair

I’m OK with “it’s the law.” Makes it clear and unambiguous. Thanks.

— Dave

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Vince

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Jan 4, 2026, 9:24:57 AMJan 4
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No worries.

I was being slightly tongue-in-cheek about “the law”—keep in mind the fourth paragraph at the top of SEMoS (“Having said that…”). But starting off, it’s best to treat it as the law. :) Your assigned manager can help with any questions regarding possible exceptions.

Also be sure to follow the Step by Step guide as closely as possible. This is for your benefit to learn the tools as well as your assigned reviewer, to easily see that everything was done correctly.

Alex Cabal

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Jan 5, 2026, 2:18:05 PMJan 5
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OK, Lukas will manage with Weijia reviewing.a

On 1/4/26 7:43 AM, Dave Roberts wrote:
> Hi Vince,
>
> My apologies. I missed the request for the repo link. Here: https://
> github.com/dgr/edgar-rice-burroughs_the-oakdale-affair <https://
> github.com/dgr/edgar-rice-burroughs_the-oakdale-affair>
>
> I’m OK with “it’s the law.” Makes it clear and unambiguous. Thanks.
>
> — Dave
>
>
> On Jan 3, 2026, at 10:25 PM, Vince <vr_se...@letterboxes.org> wrote:
>
> First, as Alex requested, please send a link to your repo, then Alex can
> assign a manager to the project that will answer any questions you have.
>
> SEMoS isn’t suggesting—it’s the law. :) If SEMoS says do it, that’s what
> we do, regardless of what is in the scans. IOW, do what 8.1.4 says.
> You’ll find the same thing, e.g., when it comes to italics—SEMoS’ rules
> for italics apply regardless of what is in the scans.
>
> Yes, the title should match, butse build-titlewill take care of that
> when you get to that step.
>
>> On Jan 4, 2026, at 10:08 AM, Dave Roberts <drob...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I’m at the Typogrify section of the Step-by-Step guide. Specifically,
>> I’m looking through the checklist in that document and in Style
>> Manual, section 8. Specifically, I have questions about section 8.1.4.
>> When I split the text, following the lead of the page scans, I
>> inserted <h2>Chapter …</h2> headings and ran the “se split-file…”
>> command. All that worked well. But now section 8.1.4 is suggesting to
>> me that I really want to eliminate “Chapter” and use roman numerals
>> for all of the chapter headings. Is that what I want? Or should I
>> follow the direction of the scan and have “Chapter One,” “Chapter
>> Two,” etc? I noticed that after the automatic processing up through
>> this point, there is a <title> tag in the head with roman numerals in
>> it. Should the text in the <title> tag in the head and the <h2> tag in
>> the body match?
>>
>>
>> On Jan 3, 2026, at 3:08 PM, Dave Roberts <drob...@gmail.com
>> <mailto:drob...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>> Ah, you’re right about the multiple chapters. Overwhelmed by my joy in
>> having found what seemed like a good scan, I hadn’t noticed that. OK,
>> I’ll follow those divisions.
>>
>> On Jan 3, 2026, at 2:07 PM, 'Alex Cabal' via Standard Ebooks
>> <standar...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
>>
>> OK, that's a good find, exactly what we need.
>>
>> You can use those scans. I see the scans are divided into more
>> chapters like Robin noted, so you can divide our edition into multiple
>> chapters too. Then the editor's note is no longer necessary.
>>
>> Please send a link to your repo once you start.
>
>
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Dave Roberts

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Jan 6, 2026, 11:45:52 AMJan 6
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I have this construction occurring in the text:

“Thank you, but;⁠—er⁠—I’m on the wagon, you know,” declined the youth.

I’ve never seen a semicolon-followed-by-em-dash. I’m wondering if the semicolon needs to be removed. The original scans show the semicolon present, so the scan was accurate. I’m a better-than-average punctuation-Nazi, but I’m wondering what is correct to do in this instance.

— Dave
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Lukas Bystricky

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Jan 6, 2026, 12:05:31 PMJan 6
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I agree it looks a bit strange, but it's fine to leave it as is. Generally it's too big a rabbit hole to mess with punctuation beyond what's in the style guide and more often than not typogrify handles this automatically.

Dave Roberts

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Jan 6, 2026, 1:34:49 PMJan 6
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Dave Roberts

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Jan 7, 2026, 9:53:26 AMJan 7
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Lukas,

I need some direction on how to handle emphasis versus what is shown in the original scans.

I have multiple cases of all-caps words in the document. Some easily resolve to “<em>” tags. Others don’t. Easy case:

But later in the day when word came from a nearby town that Reginald had been seen in a strange touring car with two unknown men and a girl, the gossips commenced to wag their heads. It was mentioned, casually of course, that this town was a few stations along the very road upon which Abigail had departed the previous afternoon for that destination which she had not reached. It was likewise remarked that Reginald, the two strange men and the GIRL had been first noticed after the time of arrival of the Oakdale train!


“GIRL” is italicized in the scan and IMO should be converted to “<em>.” That said, it’s not in dialog; it’s in descriptive text (it’s being emphasized by the narrator, not one of the characters).

The other case that occurs is:

The Oskaloosa Kid cast a wide eyed glance of terror at Bridge. His lips moved in an attempt to speak; but fear rendered him inarticulate. Slowly, ponderously the THING ascended the dark stairs from the gloom ridden cellar of the deserted ruin. Even Bridge paled a trifle. The man upon the floor appeared to have met an unnatural death⁠—the frightful expression frozen upon the dead face might even indicate something verging upon the supernatural. The sound of the THING climbing out of the cellar was indeed uncanny⁠—so uncanny that Bridge discovered himself looking about for some means of escape. His eyes fell upon the stairway leading to the second floor.


The “THING” occurs many times, in multiple paragraphs. Here, you see it twice in the same paragraph. It’s basically a character name of sorts (perhaps with “the THING” as opposed to just “THING”). The original scans show it rendered in all-caps, so it’s not an artifact of upstream conversion; it was in the original.

Suggestions for this? Things I’ve thought about:
  • <em>
  • <strong>
  • Capitalize it: Thing
  • Capitalize it with article: The Thing

I don’t think it’s proper to use “<em>.” It’s more than just emphasis. Or even strong emphasis, perhaps.

What do you think?

— Dave


On Jan 6, 2026, at 11:05 AM, Lukas Bystricky <lukasby...@gmail.com> wrote:

Lukas Bystricky

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Jan 7, 2026, 11:21:20 AMJan 7
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I think you're right that it looks more like a character name. In that case I would capitalize it everywhere. Make sure to do this in an [Editorial] commit. 

Dave Roberts

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Jan 7, 2026, 12:07:46 PMJan 7
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OK. I’ll do “the Thing” as opposed to “The Thing.” I’ll do all the regular emphasis stuff as part of the “Manually added semantics” commit and then do another commit for “the Thing” with an “[Editorial]” marker. Does that sound right?

Lukas Bystricky

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Jan 8, 2026, 1:27:06 AMJan 8
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Yes, that sounds good. 

Dave Roberts

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Jan 8, 2026, 3:05:22 PMJan 8
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Was working through this just now and discovered that there are some references to the THING that are done as IT, as in “Can you hear IT?” and “IT’s coming!”

They are shown in the scan all-caps. I’m going to convert them to <em> tags and not capitalize them at all (i.e., not “It”).

Does that seem like a good choice?

— Dave

Dave Roberts

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Jan 8, 2026, 4:15:31 PMJan 8
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Also ran into This sentence:

If Jeb had but known it his young hopeless was already in the loft of the hay barn deep in a small, red-covered book entitled: “HOW TO BE A DETECTIVE.”


My thought is to convert the book title to title case wrapped in <i> tags and without quotes around it. Thus:

If Jeb had but known it his young hopeless was already in the loft of the hay barn deep in a small, red-covered book entitled: <i>How to Be a Detective</i>.

Does that seem correct?

— Dave

Lukas Bystricky

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Jan 8, 2026, 4:38:04 PMJan 8
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Was working through this just now and discovered that there are some references to the THING that are done as IT, as in “Can you hear IT?” and “IT’s coming!”

They are shown in the scan all-caps. I’m going to convert them to <em> tags and not capitalize them at all (i.e., not “It”).

Does that seem like a good choice?

If "IT" only appears a couple times that's fine, but if it's repeated a bunch then I think you can treat it like you did "THING".

My thought is to convert the book title to title case wrapped in <i> tags and without quotes around it. Thus:

If Jeb had but known it his young hopeless was already in the loft of the hay barn deep in a small, red-covered book entitled: <i>How to Be a Detective</i>.

Does that seem correct?

That looks good, but you'll need the correct semantics on the <i> tag (i.e. (<i epub:type="se:name.publication.book">...). 

Dave Roberts

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Jan 9, 2026, 9:49:55 AMJan 9
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Dave Roberts

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Jan 9, 2026, 10:52:50 AMJan 9
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Changes made and pushed to the repo. Take a look and let me know if you see any problems. I went with “IT” -> “<em>it</em>” as there were only three references. I changed “THING” to “Thing” and confined the change to a separate editorial commit.

Dave Roberts

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Jan 9, 2026, 12:49:13 PMJan 9
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FYI, there may be a bug in “se modernize-spelling.” I ran it and it changed “close-mouthed” to “closemouthed.” The Oxford English Dictionary that came with MacOS says “close-mouthed” is still correct. Not sure what algorithm the script uses or or how it checks validity.

— Dave

Alex Cabal

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Jan 9, 2026, 12:57:29 PMJan 9
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Our dictionary is Merriam-Webster:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/closemouthed

On 1/9/26 11:48 AM, Dave Roberts wrote:
> FYI, there may be a bug in “se modernize-spelling.” I ran it and it
> changed “close-mouthed” to “closemouthed.” The Oxford English Dictionary
> that came with MacOS says “close-mouthed” is still correct. Not sure
> what algorithm the script uses or or how it checks validity.
>
> — Dave
>
>
> On Jan 9, 2026, at 9:52 AM, Dave Roberts <drob...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Changes made and pushed to the repo. Take a look and let me know if you
> see any problems. I went with “IT” -> “<em>it</em>” as there were only
> three references. I changed “THING” to “Thing” and confined the change
> to a separate editorial commit.
>
> On Jan 9, 2026, at 8:49 AM, Dave Roberts <drob...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Sounds good.
>
> On Jan 8, 2026, at 3:38 PM, Lukas Bystricky <lukasby...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> /Was working through this just now and discovered that there are some
> references to the THING that are done as IT, as in “Can you hear IT?”
> and “IT’s coming!”/
> /
> /
> /They are shown in the scan all-caps. I’m going to convert them to <em>
> tags and not capitalize them at all (i.e., not “It”)./
> /
> /
> /Does that seem like a good choice?/
> /
> /
> If "IT" only appears a couple times that's fine, but if it's repeated a
> bunch then I think you can treat it like you did "THING".
>
> /My thought is to convert the book title to title case wrapped in <i>
> tags and without quotes around it. Thus:/
> /
> /
>
> /If Jeb had but known it his young hopeless was already in the loft
> of the hay barn deep in a small, red-covered book entitled: <i>How
> to Be a Detective</i>./
>
> /
> /
> /Does that seem correct?/
> /
> /
> * <em>
> * <strong>
> * Capitalize it: Thing
> * Capitalize it with article: The Thing
>
>
> I don’t think it’s proper to use “<em>.” It’s more than just
> emphasis. Or even strong emphasis, perhaps.
>
> What do you think?
>
> — Dave
>
>
> On Jan 6, 2026, at 11:05 AM, Lukas Bystricky
> <lukasby...@gmail.com <http://gmail.com/>> wrote:
>
> I agree it looks a bit strange, but it's fine to leave it as
> is. Generally it's too big a rabbit hole to mess with
> punctuation beyond what's in the style guide and more often
> than not typogrify handles this automatically.
>
> On Tuesday, January 6, 2026 at 5:45:52 PM UTC+1 Dave Roberts
> wrote:
>
> I have this construction occurring in the text:
>
> “Thank you, but;⁠—er⁠—I’m on the wagon, you know,”
> declined the youth.
>
>
> I’ve never seen a semicolon-followed-by-em-dash. I’m
> wondering if the semicolon needs to be removed. The
> original scans show the semicolon present, so the scan
> was accurate. I’m a better-than-average punctuation-
> Nazi, but I’m wondering what is correct to do in this
> instance.
>
> — Dave
>
> On Jan 5, 2026, at 1:17 PM, 'Alex Cabal' via Standard
> Ebooks <standar...@googlegroups.com <http://
> googlegroups.com/>> wrote:
>
> OK, Lukas will manage with Weijia reviewing.a
>
> On 1/4/26 7:43 AM, Dave Roberts wrote:
>> Hi Vince,
>> My apologies. I missed the request for the repo link.
>> Here: https://github.com/dgr/edgar-rice-burroughs_the-
>> oakdale-affair <http://github.com/dgr/edgar-rice-
>> burroughs_the-oakdale-affair><https://github.com/dgr/
>> edgar-rice-burroughs_the-oakdale-affair <http://
>> github.com/dgr/edgar-rice-burroughs_the-oakdale-affair>>
>> I’m OK with “it’s the law.” Makes it clear and
>> unambiguous. Thanks.
>> — Dave
>> On Jan 3, 2026, at 10:25 PM, Vince
>> <vr_se...@letterboxes.org <http://letterboxes.org/>>
>> wrote:
>> First, as Alex requested, please send a link to your
>> repo, then Alex can assign a manager to the project
>> that will answer any questions you have.
>> SEMoS isn’t suggesting—it’s the law. :) If SEMoS says
>> do it, that’s what we do, regardless of what is in the
>> scans. IOW, do what 8.1.4 says. You’ll find the same
>> thing, e.g., when it comes to italics—SEMoS’ rules for
>> italics apply regardless of what is in the scans.
>> Yes, the title should match, butse build-titlewill
>> take care of that when you get to that step.
>>> On Jan 4, 2026, at 10:08 AM, Dave Roberts
>>> <drob...@gmail.com <http://gmail.com/>> wrote:
>>>
>>> I’m at the Typogrify section of the Step-by-Step
>>> guide. Specifically, I’m looking through the
>>> checklist in that document and in Style Manual,
>>> section 8. Specifically, I have questions about
>>> section 8.1.4. When I split the text, following the
>>> lead of the page scans, I inserted <h2>Chapter …</h2>
>>> headings and ran the “se split-file…” command. All
>>> that worked well. But now section 8.1.4 is suggesting
>>> to me that I really want to eliminate “Chapter” and
>>> use roman numerals for all of the chapter headings.
>>> Is that what I want? Or should I follow the direction
>>> of the scan and have “Chapter One,” “Chapter Two,”
>>> etc? I noticed that after the automatic processing up
>>> through this point, there is a <title> tag in the
>>> head with roman numerals in it. Should the text in
>>> the <title> tag in the head and the <h2> tag in the
>>> body match?
>>>
>>>
>>> On Jan 3, 2026, at 3:08 PM, Dave Roberts
>>> <drob...@gmail.com <http://gmail.com/
>>> ><mailto:drob...@gmail.com <http://gmail.com/>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Ah, you’re right about the multiple chapters.
>>> Overwhelmed by my joy in having found what seemed
>>> like a good scan, I hadn’t noticed that. OK, I’ll
>>> follow those divisions.
>>>
>>> On Jan 3, 2026, at 2:07 PM, 'Alex Cabal' via Standard
>>> Ebooks <standar...@googlegroups.com <http://
>>> googlegroups.com/>> wrote:
>>>
>>> OK, that's a good find, exactly what we need.
>>>
>>> You can use those scans. I see the scans are divided
>>> into more chapters like Robin noted, so you can
>>> divide our edition into multiple chapters too. Then
>>> the editor's note is no longer necessary.
>>>
>>> Please send a link to your repo once you start.
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Dave Roberts

unread,
Jan 9, 2026, 1:11:51 PMJan 9
to Standard Ebooks
OK, I’ll revert “close-mouthed” to “closemouthed."

Here’s a judgement call with respect to spelling.

The book has lots of dialectic speech:

<p>“Shucks!” he cried. “I ain’t got nothin’ in my head,” nor did either sense the unconscious humor of the statement. “What I got is a gang o’ thieves an’ murderers, an’ I’m callin’ up thet big city deetectiff to come arter ’em.”</p>

Would you change “deetectiff” to “detective” or leave as is. I can’t find anything suggesting that “deetectiff” was an archaic spelling, so it suggests that was the way Burroughs wanted it to read.

— Dave

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Alex Cabal

unread,
Jan 9, 2026, 1:18:26 PMJan 9
to standar...@googlegroups.com
No, dialect is unchanged, it's spelled that way not because of routine,
but to emphasize how a particular character is speaking uniquely.

On 1/9/26 12:11 PM, Dave Roberts wrote:
> OK, I’ll revert “close-mouthed” to “closemouthed."
>
> Here’s a judgement call with respect to spelling.
>
> The book has lots of dialectic speech:
>
> <p>“Shucks!” he cried. “I ain’t got nothin’ in my head,” nor did
> either sense the unconscious humor of the statement. “What I got is
> a gang o’ thieves an’ murderers, an’ I’m callin’ up thet big city
> deetectiff to come arter ’em.”</p>
>
>
> Would you change “deetectiff” to “detective” or leave as is. I can’t
> find anything suggesting that “deetectiff” was an archaic spelling, so
> it suggests that was the way Burroughs wanted it to read.
>
> — Dave
>
>
> On Jan 9, 2026, at 11:57 AM, 'Alex Cabal' via Standard Ebooks
> <standar...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
>
> Our dictionary is Merriam-Webster:https://www.merriam-webster.com/
> dictionary/closemouthed <https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/
> closemouthed>
>
> On 1/9/26 11:48 AM, Dave Roberts wrote:
>> FYI, there may be a bug in “se modernize-spelling.” I ran it and it
>> changed “close-mouthed” to “closemouthed.” The Oxford English
>> Dictionary that came with MacOS says “close-mouthed” is still correct.
>> Not sure what algorithm the script uses or or how it checks validity.
>> — Dave
>> On Jan 9, 2026, at 9:52 AM, Dave Roberts <drob...@gmail.com
>> <mailto:drob...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>> Changes made and pushed to the repo. Take a look and let me know if
>> you see any problems. I went with “IT” -> “<em>it</em>” as there were
>> only three references. I changed “THING” to “Thing” and confined the
>> change to a separate editorial commit.
>> On Jan 9, 2026, at 8:49 AM, Dave Roberts <drob...@gmail.com
>> <mailto:drob...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>> Sounds good.
>> On Jan 8, 2026, at 3:38 PM, Lukas Bystricky <lukasby...@gmail.com
>>        <lukasby...@gmail.com <http://gmail.com/><http://gmail.com/
>>            <lukasby...@gmail.com <http://gmail.com/><http://gmail.com/
>> <http://gmail.com/>>> wrote:
>>            I agree it looks a bit strange, but it's fine to leave it as
>>            is. Generally it's too big a rabbit hole to mess with
>>            punctuation beyond what's in the style guide and more often
>>            than not typogrify handles this automatically.
>>            On Tuesday, January 6, 2026 at 5:45:52 PM UTC+1 Dave Roberts
>>            wrote:
>>                I have this construction occurring in the text:
>>                    “Thank you, but;⁠—er⁠—I’m on the wagon, you know,”
>>                    declined the youth.
>>                I’ve never seen a semicolon-followed-by-em-dash. I’m
>>                wondering if the semicolon needs to be removed. The
>>                original scans show the semicolon present, so the scan
>>                was accurate. I’m a better-than-average punctuation-
>>                Nazi, but I’m wondering what is correct to do in this
>>                instance.
>>                — Dave
>>                On Jan 5, 2026, at 1:17 PM, 'Alex Cabal' via Standard
>>                Ebooks <standar...@googlegroups.com <http://
>> googlegroups.com/><http://
>> googlegroups.com/ <http://googlegroups.com/>>> wrote:
>>                OK, Lukas will manage with Weijia reviewing.a
>>                On 1/4/26 7:43 AM, Dave Roberts wrote:
>>>                Hi Vince,
>>>                My apologies. I missed the request for the repo link.
>>>                Here:https://github.com/dgr/edgar-rice-burroughs_the-
>>> <https://github.com/dgr/edgar-rice-burroughs_the->
>>>                oakdale-affair <http://github.com/dgr/edgar-rice-
>>> <http://github.com/dgr/edgar-rice->
>>>                burroughs_the-oakdale-affair><https://github.com/dgr/
>>> <https://github.com/dgr/>
>>>                edgar-rice-burroughs_the-oakdale-affair <http://
>>> github.com/dgr/edgar-rice-burroughs_the-oakdale-affair <http://
>>> github.com/dgr/edgar-rice-burroughs_the-oakdale-affair>>>
>>>                I’m OK with “it’s the law.” Makes it clear and
>>>                unambiguous. Thanks.
>>>                — Dave
>>>                On Jan 3, 2026, at 10:25 PM, Vince
>>>                <vr_se...@letterboxes.org <http://letterboxes.org/
>>> ><http://letterboxes.org/ <http://letterboxes.org/>>>
>>>                wrote:
>>>                First, as Alex requested, please send a link to your
>>>                repo, then Alex can assign a manager to the project
>>>                that will answer any questions you have.
>>>                SEMoS isn’t suggesting—it’s the law. :) If SEMoS says
>>>                do it, that’s what we do, regardless of what is in the
>>>                scans. IOW, do what 8.1.4 says. You’ll find the same
>>>                thing, e.g., when it comes to italics—SEMoS’ rules for
>>>                italics apply regardless of what is in the scans.
>>>                Yes, the title should match, butse build-titlewill
>>>                take care of that when you get to that step.
>>>>                On Jan 4, 2026, at 10:08 AM, Dave Roberts
>>>>                <drob...@gmail.com <http://gmail.com/><http://
>>>> gmail.com/ <http://gmail.com/>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>                I’m at the Typogrify section of the Step-by-Step
>>>>                guide. Specifically, I’m looking through the
>>>>                checklist in that document and in Style Manual,
>>>>                section 8. Specifically, I have questions about
>>>>                section 8.1.4. When I split the text, following the
>>>>                lead of the page scans, I inserted <h2>Chapter …</h2>
>>>>                headings and ran the “se split-file…” command. All
>>>>                that worked well. But now section 8.1.4 is suggesting
>>>>                to me that I really want to eliminate “Chapter” and
>>>>                use roman numerals for all of the chapter headings.
>>>>                Is that what I want? Or should I follow the direction
>>>>                of the scan and have “Chapter One,” “Chapter Two,”
>>>>                etc? I noticed that after the automatic processing up
>>>>                through this point, there is a <title> tag in the
>>>>                head with roman numerals in it. Should the text in
>>>>                the <title> tag in the head and the <h2> tag in the
>>>>                body match?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>                On Jan 3, 2026, at 3:08 PM, Dave Roberts
>>>>                <drob...@gmail.com <http://gmail.com/><http://
>>>> gmail.com/ <http://gmail.com/>
>>>>                ><mailto:drob...@gmail.com <http://gmail.com/
>>>> ><http://gmail.com/ <http://gmail.com/>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>                Ah, you’re right about the multiple chapters.
>>>>                Overwhelmed by my joy in having found what seemed
>>>>                like a good scan, I hadn’t noticed that. OK, I’ll
>>>>                follow those divisions.
>>>>
>>>>                On Jan 3, 2026, at 2:07 PM, 'Alex Cabal' via Standard
>>>>                Ebooks <standar...@googlegroups.com <http://
>>>> googlegroups.com/><http://
>>>> googlegroups.com/ <http://googlegroups.com/>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>                OK, that's a good find, exactly what we need.
>>>>
>>>>                You can use those scans. I see the scans are divided
>>>>                into more chapters like Robin noted, so you can
>>>>                divide our edition into multiple chapters too. Then
>>>>                the editor's note is no longer necessary.
>>>>
>>>>                Please send a link to your repo once you start.
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Dave Roberts

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Jan 9, 2026, 1:28:48 PMJan 9
to Standard Ebooks
Right, I guess that’s what I meant.
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Dave Roberts

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Jan 13, 2026, 12:46:10 PMJan 13
to Standard Ebooks
The book had a large number of words quoted in basic descriptive prose, not in dialog. For instance:

The Oskaloosa Kid, self-confessed ‘tramp’ and burglar, flushed at the lurid obscenity of Dirty Eddie’s remarks.

Note “tramp” in single quotes. The scans indicate that the original used this punctuation. “se lint” is flagging these cases to me.

I could either leave them as-is or convert to double quotes. Opinions on this? I suspect conversion to double quotes is the right answer.

— Dave

Dave Roberts

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Jan 13, 2026, 1:22:05 PMJan 13
to Standard Ebooks
One of the characters is prone to rattling off a little poem every now and then. Example:

PastedGraphic-1.png

This was previously set in <pre> tags. I’ve converted this to:

<p epub:type="z3998:poem">
 <span>“'I had the makings and I smoked</span><br/>
 <span class="i1">“'And wondered over different things,</span><br/>
 <span>“'Thinkin' as how this old world joked</span><br/>
 <span class="i1">“'In callin' only some men kings</span><br/>
 <span>“'While I sat there a-blowin' rings.'”</span>
                        </p>

Is this the correct way to do this? I debated about wrapping with the <blockquote>, per SEMoS 7.5.5, but it’s not actually quoting another work (e.g., a popular poet). The verse in this case is original poetry that the character is just rattling off.

Thoughts? I assume I should commit with an “[Editorial]” task for this, too, right?

— Dave

Lukas Bystricky

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Jan 13, 2026, 5:13:36 PMJan 13
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It's ok to wrap it in a blockquote anyways, with the semantics z3998:verse. Since you're not changing the text itself in any way you don't need to mark the commit as editorial. 

Dave Roberts

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Jan 13, 2026, 5:30:30 PMJan 13
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OK, will do. What are your thoughts on the previous issue I sent (converting single quoted words in descriptive text to double quotes)?

Lukas Bystricky

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Jan 14, 2026, 1:07:01 AMJan 14
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Oh, sorry I missed that. You're right, converting them to double quotes is correct, unless they're embedded in another quote. 

Dave Roberts

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Jan 17, 2026, 4:02:41 PMJan 17
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I have an instance of “k.o.” in the book, as short for “knockout.”

PastedGraphic-1.png

What’s the guidance for converting this? I could:
  • Convert it to “K.O."
  • Convert it to “knockout”
  • Leave it as-is

I’m guessing it might need a somatic tag of some sort, but not sure what.

Thanks,

— Dave

Lukas Bystricky

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Jan 18, 2026, 1:26:47 AMJan 18
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I would convert it to K.O. (as an editorial commit). It will need to wrapped in abbr tags and given the semantics epub:type="z3998:initialism". See SEMoS 8.2.10.

David

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Jan 18, 2026, 5:03:59 AMJan 18
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I see that MW has this now as KO (simply). Do we follow MW in this situation (like we do with a myriad of e.g. French words)? Or stick with the full-stops and `abbr`? Inquiring minds would like to know!

David / Fife, UK

Lukas Bystricky

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Jan 18, 2026, 8:17:14 AMJan 18
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Good catch David. Ignore what I wrote earlier, I think KO is the way to go here. 

Lukas Bystricky

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Jan 18, 2026, 8:21:12 AMJan 18
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Although on (very brief) reflection, I wonder how that would play out with screen readers. Maybe it's best to punt this to Alex. 

On Sun, Jan 18, 2026, 11:04 David <djre...@gmail.com> wrote:

Alex Cabal

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Jan 18, 2026, 4:47:57 PMJan 18
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Let's do K.O. with periods. It is clearly an initialism for a two word
phrase (or compound word depending on how you look at it).

On 1/18/26 7:20 AM, Lukas Bystricky wrote:
> Although on (very brief) reflection, I wonder how that would play out
> with screen readers. Maybe it's best to punt this to Alex.
>
> On Sun, Jan 18, 2026, 11:04 David <djre...@gmail.com
> <mailto:djre...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> I see that MW has this now as KO (simply) <https://www.merriam-
> webster.com/dictionary/KO>. Do we follow MW in this situation (like
> we do with a myriad of e.g. French words)? Or stick with the full-
> stops and `abbr`? Inquiring minds would like to know!
>
> David / Fife, UK
>
> On Sunday, 18 January 2026 at 06:26:47 UTC lukasby...@gmail.com
> <mailto:lukasby...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I would convert it to K.O. (as an editorial commit). It will
> need to wrapped in abbr tags and given the semantics
> epub:type="z3998:initialism". See SEMoS 8.2.10. <https://
> standardebooks.org/manual/1.8.5/single-page#8.10.2>
>
> On Saturday, January 17, 2026 at 10:02:41 PM UTC+1 Dave Roberts
> wrote:
>
> I have an instance of “k.o.” in the book, as short for
> “knockout.”
>
> PastedGraphic-1.png
>
> What’s the guidance for converting this? I could:
>
> * Convert it to “K.O."
> * Convert it to “knockout”
> * Leave it as-is
>
>
> I’m guessing it might need a somatic tag of some sort, but
> not sure what.
>
> Thanks,
>
> — Dave
>
>
> On Jan 14, 2026, at 12:06 AM, Lukas Bystricky
> <lukasby...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Oh, sorry I missed that. You're right, converting them to
> double quotes is correct, unless they're embedded in another
> quote.
>
> On Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 23:30 Dave Roberts <drob...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> OK, will do. What are your thoughts on the previous
> issue I sent (converting single quoted words in
> descriptive text to double quotes)?
>
> On Jan 13, 2026, at 4:13 PM, Lukas Bystricky
> <lukasby...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> It's ok to wrap it in a blockquote anyways, with the
> semantics z3998:verse. Since you're not changing the
> text itself in any way you don't need to mark the commit
> as editorial.
>
> On Tuesday, January 13, 2026 at 7:22:05 PM UTC+1 Dave
> Roberts wrote:
>
> One of the characters is prone to rattling off a
> little poem every now and then. Example:
>
>> www.merriam-webster.com/ <https://www.merriam-
>> webster.com/> dictionary/closemouthed <https://
>> www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ <https://
>> www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/> closemouthed>
>>> <http://gmail.com/>><http://gmail.com/ <http://
>>>           <lukasby...@gmail.com <http://
>>> gmail.com/ <http://gmail.com/>><http://gmail.com/
>>> <http://gmail.com/> <http://gmail.com/ <http://
>>> googlegroups.com/ <http://googlegroups.com/>
>>> <http://googlegroups.com/ <http://
>>> googlegroups.com/>>>> wrote:
>>>               OK, Lukas will manage with Weijia
>>> reviewing.a
>>>               On 1/4/26 7:43 AM, Dave Roberts wrote:
>>>>               Hi Vince,
>>>>               My apologies. I missed the request
>>>> for the repo link.
>>>>               Here:https://github.com/dgr/edgar-
>>>> rice-burroughs_the- <https://github.com/dgr/
>>>> edgar-rice-burroughs_the-> <https://github.com/
>>>> dgr/edgar-rice-burroughs_the- <https://
>>>> github.com/dgr/edgar-rice-burroughs_the->>
>>>>               oakdale-affair <http://github.com/
>>>> dgr/edgar-rice- <http://github.com/dgr/edgar-
>>>> rice-> <http://github.com/dgr/edgar-rice-
>>>> <http://github.com/dgr/edgar-rice->>
>>>>               burroughs_the-oakdale-
>>>> affair><https://github.com/dgr/ <https://
>>>> github.com/dgr/> <https://github.com/dgr/
>>>> <https://github.com/dgr/>>
>>>>               edgar-rice-burroughs_the-oakdale-
>>>> affair <http://
>>>> github.com/dgr/edgar-rice-burroughs_the-oakdale-
>>>> affair <http://github.com/dgr/edgar-rice-
>>>> burroughs_the-oakdale-affair> <http://
>>>> github.com/dgr/edgar-rice-burroughs_the-oakdale-
>>>> affair <http://github.com/dgr/edgar-rice-
>>>> burroughs_the-oakdale-affair>>>>
>>>>               I’m OK with “it’s the law.” Makes
>>>> it clear and
>>>>               unambiguous. Thanks.
>>>>               — Dave
>>>>               On Jan 3, 2026, at 10:25 PM, Vince
>>>>               <vr_se...@letterboxes.org <http://
>>>> letterboxes.org/ <http://letterboxes.org/>
>>>> ><http://letterboxes.org/ <http://
>>>> letterboxes.org/> <http://letterboxes.org/
>>>>> gmail.com/ <http://gmail.com/>><http://
>>>>> gmail.com/ <http://gmail.com/> <http://
>>>>> gmail.com/ <http://gmail.com/>><http://
>>>>> gmail.com/ <http://gmail.com/> <http://
>>>>> gmail.com/ <http://gmail.com/>>
>>>>>> <mailto:drob...@gmail.com <http://gmail.com/
>>>>>> <http://gmail.com/> ><http://gmail.com/
>>>>>> <http://gmail.com/> <http://gmail.com/
>>>>>> <http://gmail.com/>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>               Ah, you’re right about the
>>>>> multiple chapters.
>>>>>               Overwhelmed by my joy in having
>>>>> found what seemed
>>>>>               like a good scan, I hadn’t
>>>>> noticed that. OK, I’ll
>>>>>               follow those divisions.
>>>>>
>>>>>               On Jan 3, 2026, at 2:07 PM, 'Alex
>>>>> Cabal' via Standard
>>>>>               Ebooks
>>>>> <standar...@googlegroups.com <http://
>>>>> googlegroups.com/ <http://googlegroups.com/
>>>> <http://googlegroups.com/ <http://
>>>> googlegroups.com/>>
>>>>> <mailto:standardebook...@googlegroups.com
>>>>> <http:// googlegroups.com/ <http://
>>>>> googlegroups.com/>><http://
>>>> googlegroups.com/ <http://googlegroups.com/>
>>>> <http://googlegroups.com/ <http://
>>>> googlegroups.com/>>>>.
>>>>               To view this discussion visithttps://
>>>> groups.google.com/d/msgid/ <http://
>>>> groups.google.com/d/msgid/> <http://
>>>> groups.google.com/d/msgid/ <http://
>>>> groups.google.com/d/msgid/> ><http://
>>>> groups.google.com/ <http://groups.google.com/>
>>>> <http://groups.google.com/ <http://
>>>> groups.google.com/>>
>>>>               d/msgid/
>>>> >standardebooks/40079AE3-713B-4504-994C-
>>>>               E24673B12018%40letterboxes.org
>>>> <http://40letterboxes.org/>
>>>> <http://40letterboxes.org/
>>>> <http://40letterboxes.org/>>
>>>>               <http://40letterboxes.org/
>>>> <http://40letterboxes.org/>
>>>> <http://40letterboxes.org/
>>>> <http://40letterboxes.org/> >><https://
>>>> groups.google.com/ <https://groups.google.com/>
>>>> <https://groups.google.com/ <https://
>>>> groups.google.com/>>
>>>>               d/msgid/ <https://
>>>> groups.google.com/d/msgid/ <https://
>>>> groups.google.com/d/msgid/> <https://
>>>> groups.google.com/d/msgid/ <http://
>>>> groups.google.com/d/msgid/>>
>>>>> standardebooks/40079AE3-713B-4504-994C-
>>>>               E24673B12018%40letterboxes.org
>>>> <http://40letterboxes.org/>
>>>> <http://40letterboxes.org/
>>>> <http://40letterboxes.org/>>
>>>>               <http://40letterboxes.org/
>>>> <http://40letterboxes.org/>
>>>> <http://40letterboxes.org/
>>>> <http://40letterboxes.org/>>>?
>>>>               utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.
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>>>> EEFACC57-7584-412A-
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>>>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/
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>>>>               utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer
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Dave Roberts

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Jan 20, 2026, 6:04:45 PMJan 20
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Sounds good. Another question about tagging an instance of “Jr.” as an abbreviation for Junior. I have wrapped it in an <abbr> tag. In looking through SEMoS, it doesn’t seem like this needs a semantic type. In particular, it doesn’t seem like epub:type="z3998:name-title” is appropriate and section 8.3.5 shows it without any epub:type. Is this correct?

— Dave

Alex Cabal

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Jan 20, 2026, 6:05:59 PMJan 20
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Correct

Dave Roberts

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Jan 26, 2026, 8:18:50 PMJan 26
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I’m doing a detailed proof read and encountering a couple of places with some creative punctuation that is present in the original scans, as well as the converted text. For instance:
PastedGraphic-1.png

This reads: “Come! buck up.”

I would expect that to be Come! Buck up.
Or perhaps Come, buck up!

The exclamation point followed by a lowercase word is throwing me off. There’s a similar case earlier that has a question mark instead of the exclamation point. I had previously decided to let it go since it was in the original, but now I’m questioning that.

Thoughts on whether to touch this or leave it as is, and if to touch it, how to handle it.

— Dave
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Dave Roberts

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Jan 26, 2026, 8:34:53 PMJan 26
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I started to grep for these cases. There are a few more:

  • We’ll look like a bunch o’ wise ones, won’t we? lettin’ a stranger sit in now⁠—after last night.
  • I ask myself: was this man murdered? but I do not say that he was murdered.
  • He took them out of my pocket at the jail because he thought that I had stolen them and he wanted to take the guilt upon himself; but they were not stolen, I tell you⁠—they are mine! they are mine! they are mine!
  • The meat course gone Willie placed the vegetable dish on the empty plate, seized a spoon in lieu of knife and fork and⁠—presto! the side-dish was empty


etc.


— Dave


On Jan 26, 2026, at 7:18 PM, Dave Roberts <drob...@gmail.com> wrote:

I’m doing a detailed proof read and encountering a couple of places with some creative punctuation that is present in the original scans, as well as the converted text. For instance:

Lukas Bystricky

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Jan 27, 2026, 12:47:40 AMJan 27
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You can leave that as is, it's actually not that uncommon in older books. 

Dave Roberts

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Jan 27, 2026, 9:31:31 AMJan 27
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Dave Roberts

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Jan 28, 2026, 10:58:25 PMJan 28
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Encountered “colledge” for what I think should be “college.” Merriam-Webster doesn’t have “colledge” as even an old spelling. The scan shows the “d” included:
PastedGraphic-1.png

I propose modifying this to “college.”

— Dave

Dave Roberts

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Jan 28, 2026, 11:43:05 PMJan 28
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Also, I have an instance of “worth while” that should probably be modernized to “worthwhile.”

PastedGraphic-1.png

— Dave

On Jan 28, 2026, at 9:58 PM, Dave Roberts <drob...@gmail.com> wrote:

Encountered “colledge” for what I think should be “college.” Merriam-Webster doesn’t have “colledge” as even an old spelling. The scan shows the “d” included:

Vince Rice

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Jan 29, 2026, 12:00:53 AMJan 29
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On Jan 28, 2026, at 10:43 PM, Dave Roberts <drob...@gmail.com> wrote:

Also, I have an instance of “worth while” that should probably be modernized to “worthwhile.”

No, we don’t change that. See here.

Dave Roberts

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Jan 29, 2026, 12:05:10 AMJan 29
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OK, interesting. What about “colledge” -> “college” ?
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Lukas Bystricky

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Jan 29, 2026, 1:01:04 AMJan 29
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I would say it's probably ok to modernize it, but I wonder if it's not spelt that way intentionally to indicate that the speaker is uneducated or making fun of Lizzy. Does "college" with the correct spelling appear anywhere else in the book? 

Dave Roberts

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Jan 29, 2026, 1:38:43 PMJan 29
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Ah, VERY good point. Yes, it is used one other time and is spelled correctly, so I’m guessing you’re right. I’ll leave it as-is.

Dave Roberts

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Jan 31, 2026, 6:01:25 PMJan 31
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The work has this sentence in it using the French words for father and mother. I’ve added italics and an appropriate language indication: <i xlm:lang=“fr”>.

However, the original scan actually uses the wrong accents:
PastedGraphic-1.png

I’ve also corrected the accents (should be grave, not acute, pointing the other direction).

Question: Should this be marked as an editorial change since it modifies the scanned words?

— Dave

Lukas Bystricky

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Jan 31, 2026, 7:12:24 PMJan 31
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Yes, correct the accents, but mark as editorial. 

Dave Roberts

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Jan 31, 2026, 10:59:06 PMJan 31
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Another bit of French, Latin, and Spanish.

PastedGraphic-1.png

While this is not italicized in the original, I assume I should italicize and add language tags, and the commit should be marked “[Editorial]”.

— Dave

Lukas Bystricky

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Feb 1, 2026, 3:15:41 AMFeb 1
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In this case you're changing the formatting, but not the text itself, so you don't need to mark it as editorial. You'll still want to keep your commit history clear; a message like "Add italics" or something similar is sufficient. 

Dave Roberts

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Feb 16, 2026, 6:07:11 PM (6 days ago) Feb 16
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Here’s another odd one that I’m not sure what to do. There is a sentence that is describing the time a boy took to eat something. The time is accurately transcribed from the original, but even the original looks odd because of the fraction:
PastedGraphic-1.png

Lukas Bystricky

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Feb 17, 2026, 12:37:40 AM (6 days ago) Feb 17
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For fractions generally we want to use the Unicode glyph (see 8.8.6.1). Typogrify may have already fixed that for you. 

Dave Roberts

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Feb 18, 2026, 7:30:30 PM (4 days ago) Feb 18
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Here’s the original scan. I think there needs to be a scene break just before the paragraph that starts with “Burton’s car drew up before the doorway of the Prim home in Oakdale.” This paragraph takes place in another city. This final chapter is full of scene changes as the story reaches its resolution, most of which are marked with scene breaks in the original text, but in this case not.


PastedGraphic-1.png

Lukas Bystricky

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Feb 19, 2026, 12:47:16 AM (4 days ago) Feb 19
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Ok, if you're sure there should be a break there go ahead and add one. Make sure to make it an editorial commit. 

On Thu, Feb 19, 2026, 01:30 Dave Roberts <drob...@gmail.com> wrote:
Here’s the original scan. I think there needs to be a scene break just before the paragraph that starts with “Burton’s car drew up before the doorway of the Prim home in Oakdale.” This paragraph takes place in another city. This final chapter is full of scene changes as the story reaches its resolution, most of which are marked with scene breaks in the original text, but in this case not.


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Dave Roberts

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Feb 19, 2026, 10:55:06 AM (3 days ago) Feb 19
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Yea, I’m sure. Will do on the editorial commit.

Dave Roberts

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Feb 19, 2026, 11:39:13 AM (3 days ago) Feb 19
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The book uses the word “haled,” an archaic version of “hauled.” https://standardebooks.org/contribute/how-tos/things-to-look-out-for-when-proofreading says to look for archaic spellings. Merriam-Webster lists “haled” but Google N-gram Viewer shows it as basically unused (link: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=haled&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3 ).

PastedGraphic-1.png


Choices:
1. Leave as is.
2. Change it to “hauled” and commit as [Editorial].

— Dave

Lukas Bystricky

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Feb 19, 2026, 12:58:02 PM (3 days ago) Feb 19
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Generally if it's in MW, and not explicitly stated as archaic we don't modernize it.

Dave Roberts

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Feb 19, 2026, 1:32:42 PM (3 days ago) Feb 19
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Dave Roberts

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Feb 19, 2026, 1:44:28 PM (3 days ago) Feb 19
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I’ve finished proof reading and have pushed the latest commits to the public repo, if you want to take a look. I’m now starting to try to find cover art. After reading through the SE pages on cover art, it seems like the fundamental criterial is that the image must have been published in a book before 1931. How does one go about finding an image in a book published before 1931? I’m not sure what the point of all the museum search pages is if they just return results that cannot be used, even if marked CC0. If I find an image at a museum, how would I even go searching for it in a book published before 1931?

— Dave



Lukas Bystricky

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Feb 19, 2026, 1:55:26 PM (3 days ago) Feb 19
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You can find scans of books in the usual places, i.e. the Internet Archive, Google Books, Hatchi Trust. 

You are allowed to use images from museums provided they have a CC0 licence; in that case you don't need to find proof in a book. The list of approved museums is in the manual. You're also free to use images in our existing database of approved covers

Dave Roberts

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Feb 19, 2026, 2:14:47 PM (3 days ago) Feb 19
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So, perhaps SEMoS needs an update. https://standardebooks.org/manual/1.8.6/10-art-and-images#10.3.3.7.5 says

* I’ve found a painting on a museum site and it says they think it’s in the public domain, but there’s no other license information. Is that OK?

No. You must find a reproduction of your selected painting in a book published before January 1, 1931.

If I can just use something from a museum site that says it’s CC0, then these two are interesting:

Might one of those work?

— Dave

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Alex Cabal

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Feb 19, 2026, 2:19:20 PM (3 days ago) Feb 19
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An explicit CC0 license, and the text "we think this is public domain",
are not the same thing. The manual is correct, and if you're looking at
museums then we can only accept entries from our preapproved list of
museums.

On 2/19/26 1:14 PM, Dave Roberts wrote:
> So, perhaps SEMoS needs an update. https://standardebooks.org/
> manual/1.8.6/10-art-and-images#10.3.3.7.5 <https://standardebooks.org/
> manual/1.8.6/10-art-and-images#10.3.3.7.5> says
>
> * I’ve found a painting on a museum site and it says they think it’s
> in the public domain, but there’s no other license information. Is
> that OK?
>
> No. You must find a reproduction of your selected painting in a book
> published before January 1, 1931.
>
>
> If I can just use something from a museum site that says it’s CC0, then
> these two are interesting:
> https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1970.17 <https://www.clevelandart.org/
> art/1970.17>
> https://dams.birminghammuseums.org.uk/assetbank-birminghammuseums/
> action/viewAsset?id=34871&index=32&total=34&view=viewSearchItem#
> <https://dams.birminghammuseums.org.uk/assetbank-birminghammuseums/
> action/viewAsset?id=34871&index=32&total=34&view=viewSearchItem#>
>
> Might one of those work?
>
> — Dave
>
>
> On Feb 19, 2026, at 12:55 PM, Lukas Bystricky <lukasby...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> You can find scans of books in the usual places, i.e. the Internet
> Archive, Google Books, Hatchi Trust.
>
> You are allowed to use images from museums provided they have a CC0
> licence; in that case you don't need to find proof in a book. The list
> of approved museums <https://standardebooks.org/manual/1.8.6/10-art-and-
> images#10.3.3.7.4> is in the manual. You're also free to use images in
> our existing database of approved covers <https://standardebooks.org/
> artworks>.
>
> On Thursday, February 19, 2026 at 7:44:28 PM UTC+1 Dave Roberts wrote:
>
> I’ve finished proof reading and have pushed the latest commits to
> the public repo, if you want to take a look. I’m now starting to try
> to find cover art. After reading through the SE pages on cover art,
> it seems like the fundamental criterial is that the image must have
> been published in a book before 1931. How does one go about finding
> an image in a book published before 1931? I’m not sure what the
> point of all the museum search pages is if they just return results
> that cannot be used, even if marked CC0. If I find an image at a
> museum, how would I even go searching for it in a book published
> before 1931?
>
> — Dave
>
>
>
>
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Dave Roberts

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Feb 19, 2026, 3:43:19 PM (3 days ago) Feb 19
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OK, if that works, then that’s great. That said, I think the text in SEMoS is at best confusing. SE might want to clarify that CC0 claims from museums on the list do NOT require finding the picture in a pre-1931 book, unless I missed it and that’s already there.

Assuming those claims of PD and CC0 are correct from the museums, is the second link I sent an acceptable option? It’s a watercolor and SEMoS seems to say that watercolors are at least disfavored. If it cannot be used, I’ll either use the first link or continue to look further.

Also, are pictures in the SE image library that are marked “Used” off-limits for new works, or is SE open to reusing images?

— Dave
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Alex Cabal

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Feb 19, 2026, 3:45:12 PM (3 days ago) Feb 19
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CC0 is the name of a specific license. You cannot "claim CC0". You
*apply* the CC0 license to something. This is not the same as something
being "public domain", which is *lapsing* of existing copyright, and not
a *license applied to something*.

Vince

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Feb 19, 2026, 4:04:35 PM (3 days ago) Feb 19
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On 2/19/26 2:43 PM, Dave Roberts wrote:

OK, if that works, then that’s great. That said, I think the text in SEMoS is at best confusing. SE might want to clarify that CC0 claims from museums on the list do NOT require finding the picture in a pre-1931 book, unless I missed it and that’s already there.

It says exactly that, in 10.3.3.7.4.

Also, are pictures in the SE image library that are marked “Used” off-limits for new works, or is SE open to reusing images?

They’re off-limits; we don’t re-use images.

Lukas Bystricky

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Feb 19, 2026, 4:40:38 PM (3 days ago) Feb 19
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If I can just use something from a museum site that says it’s CC0, then these two are interesting:

Might one of those work?

We prefer oil paintings, but watercolours can be used on a case by case basis if they look close enough. Usually it's Alex who decides. Can you send a mockup of the second option?  

Alex Cabal

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Feb 19, 2026, 4:41:50 PM (3 days ago) Feb 19
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I think the house is too watercolory. The better question is how these
paintings relate to the book

On 2/19/26 3:40 PM, Lukas Bystricky wrote:
> /If I can just use something from a museum site that says it’s CC0, then
> these two are interesting:/
> /https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1970.17/ <https://
> www.clevelandart.org/art/1970.17>
> /https://dams.birminghammuseums.org.uk/assetbank-birminghammuseums/
> action/viewAsset?id=34871&index=32&total=34&view=viewSearchItem#/
> <https://dams.birminghammuseums.org.uk/assetbank-birminghammuseums/
> action/viewAsset?id=34871&index=32&total=34&view=viewSearchItem#>
> /
> /
> /Might one of those work?/
> /
> /
> We prefer oil paintings, but watercolours can be used on a case by case
> basis if they look close enough. Usually it's Alex who decides. Can you
> send a mockup of the second option?
>
> On Thursday, February 19, 2026 at 10:04:35 PM UTC+1 Vince wrote:
>
>> On 2/19/26 2:43 PM, Dave Roberts wrote:
>>
>> OK, if that works, then that’s great. That said, I think the text
>> in SEMoS is at best confusing. SE might want to clarify that CC0
>> claims from museums on the list do NOT require finding the picture
>> in a pre-1931 book, unless I missed it and that’s already there.
>
> It says exactly that, in 10.3.3.7.4. <https://standardebooks.org/
> manual/1.8.6/single-page#10.3.3.7.4>
>
>> Also, are pictures in the SE image library that are marked “Used”
>> off-limits for new works, or is SE open to reusing images?
>
> They’re off-limits; we don’t re-use images.
>
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Dave Roberts

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Feb 20, 2026, 11:18:01 AM (2 days ago) Feb 20
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OK. The relationship to the book is that a key location is a dilapidated house where the main characters spend the night, with a mysterious creature and a dead body.

The portrait could be one of the central male characters.

Honestly, trying to pick from classic oil paintings for a mystery story set in the 1920s/1930s that involves hobos, gypsies, rich people, and private detectives is difficult. Everybody in the museum collections looks like they are from the 1800s in style and dress. That’s one reason why I was leaning toward the house. At least it’s somewhat timeless.

I’ll continue to check Internet Archive to see if I can find something before 1931. Perhaps an old pulp magazine cover.

— Dave
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Alex Cabal

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Feb 20, 2026, 11:23:57 AM (2 days ago) Feb 20
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Finding art is tough. You sometimes have to think laterally. There are
plenty of paintings of houses that aren't obviously watercolors.
Cityscapes can also work if it's set in a big city. Think of what some
of the other settings in the book are.
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