[First project] The Road by Jack London

[Jay Martin]

I'll prepare The Road by Jack London as my first project, if approved.

- Project Gutenberg transcription, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14658
- Internet Archive scan, https://archive.org/details/road0000jack_b6z6/page/n11/mode/1up

It has nine chapters, about 51,000 words, and only a few formatting challenges:

- Epigram, https://archive.org/details/road0000jack_b6z6/page/53/mode/1up
- Numbered list, https://archive.org/details/road0000jack_b6z6/page/128/mode/1up
- Section break, https://archive.org/details/road0000jack_b6z6/page/195/mode/1up
- Quoted dialect, https://archive.org/details/road0000jack_b6z6/page/159/mode/1up

Is it acceptable as a first project?

Thanks,
Jay

[Alex Cabal]

Sure, that one would be a good start.

There is a dedication and epigraph, so you will have to include a half
title page.

It looks like these are vignettes, so you wouldn't add chapter numbers.
But, they are definitely chapters and not short stories.

The page scans have a frontispiece, if you can find a color reproduction
at a suitable resolution (or at least one that can be upscaled
reasonably) then that would make a good cover.

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 mark you as having started.

Have fun! :)

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[Jay Martin]

https://github.com/italicize/jack-london_the-road is the repository, with an initial commit.

[Alex Cabal]

OK, David will manage this with Emma reviewing.

On 7/11/25 1:33 AM, Jay Martin wrote:
> https://github.com/italicize/jack-london_the-road is the repository,
> with an initial commit.
>
> On Sunday, July 6, 2025 at 12:35:33 PM UTC-7 Alex Cabal wrote:
>
> Sure, that one would be a good start.
>
> There is a dedication and epigraph, so you will have to include a half
> title page.
>
> It looks like these are vignettes, so you wouldn't add chapter numbers.
> But, they are definitely chapters and not short stories.
>
> The page scans have a frontispiece, if you can find a color
> reproduction
> at a suitable resolution (or at least one that can be upscaled
> reasonably) then that would make a good cover.
>
> 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>
>

> https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/4-semantics <https://
> standardebooks.org/manual/latest/4-semantics>
>
> https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/7-high-level-structural-
> patterns <https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/7-high-level-
> structural-patterns>
>
> https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/8-typography <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 <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 <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 mark you as having started.
>
> Have fun! :)
>
>
> On 7/6/25 1:32 PM, Jay Martin wrote:
> > I'll prepare The Road by Jack London as my first project, if
> approved.
> >
> > - Project Gutenberg transcription, https://www.gutenberg.org/

> ebooks/14658 <https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14658>

> > - Internet Archive scan, https://archive.org/details/

> road0000jack_b6z6/ <https://archive.org/details/road0000jack_b6z6/>

> > page/n11/mode/1up
> >
> > It has nine chapters, about 51,000 words, and only a few formatting
> > challenges:
> >
> > - Epigram, https://archive.org/details/road0000jack_b6z6/page/53/

> mode/1up <https://archive.org/details/road0000jack_b6z6/page/53/
> mode/1up>
> > - Numbered list, https://archive.org/details/road0000jack_b6z6/
> page/128/ <https://archive.org/details/road0000jack_b6z6/page/128/>

> > mode/1up
> > - Section break, https://archive.org/details/road0000jack_b6z6/

> page/195/ <https://archive.org/details/road0000jack_b6z6/page/195/>

> > mode/1up
> > - Quoted dialect, https://archive.org/details/road0000jack_b6z6/
> <https://archive.org/details/road0000jack_b6z6/>
> > page/159/mode/1up
> >
> > Is it acceptable as a first project?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Jay
> >
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[David]

Okay -  noted!

David / Fife, UK

[Jay Martin]

For the cover, may I use "Mill Pond at Minneapolis," painted by Alexis Jean Fournier, 1888? It's held by the Minneapolis Museum of Art and said by them to be in the public domain. See https://collections.artsmia.org/art/750/mill-pond-at-minneapolis-alexis-jean-fournier

The musem sent me an image with a higher resolution than the image visible on their site. I'll crop it to make the train cars more prominent. 

Thanks, 

Jay

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[David Reimer]

Yes, this looks fine in terms of SE policies. Just now I can't get the
image down for uploading to the Artworks DB.

In the meanwhile, could you just say a word or two about how it suits
this book? And it's always good to post a draft of the proposed cover
crop. I'll update here once I get the image into the DB.

Thanks! D.

[Jay Martin]

The book's title, The Road, basically means the rails, as in ridin' the rails. 

To quote a little of it, "At 10:20 p.m. the Central Pacific overland pulled out of the depot ... I immediately “decked her,” that is, climbed up on top of the roof of one of the mail-cars." 

The first edition had a train car on its cover, https://archive.org/details/cu31924095660472 

Attached is a cover mock-up (with a title block copied from a different book). 

Thanks, 

Jay

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[David]

Looks good! And now added and assigned in the Artworks DB.

FWIW, I usually copy the `cover.svg` file to a working directory [just to make sure the "real" one isn't messed with], and use that for my "mock-ups" - but this one worked. :)

On Saturday, 19 July 2025 at 01:35:34 UTC+1 Jay Martin wrote:

The book's title, The Road, basically means the rails, as in ridin' the rails. 

To quote a little of it, "At 10:20 p.m. the Central Pacific overland pulled out of the depot ... I immediately “decked her,” that is, climbed up on top of the roof of one of the mail-cars." 

The first edition had a train car on its cover, https://archive.org/details/cu31924095660472 

Attached is a cover mock-up (with a title block copied from a different book). 

Thanks, 

Jay

[Jay Martin]

How do I semanticate imitation French? In the following sentence nom-de-rails is clearly a joke based on nom de plume.

• “Monicas” are the nom-de-rails that hoboes assume or accept when thrust upon them by their fellows.

I'd like to leave the original's italics to help the joke, `<em>nom de rails</em>`. However, nom de plume would have no italics, no hyphens, and no language tag, because it's in Merriam-Webster. So, should I use `<em>` or nothing or something else?


In another chapter, someone uses a sort of pidgin French.

• “...you say, ‘Mongee, Madame, mongee, no spika da French,’ an’ rub your stomach an’ look hungry...”

Mongee is clearly an attempt at mangez or manger. Should I just keep the original's italics, using `<em>`, or use some tag that indicates a badly spoken language?


Switching languages, twice the author uses the word passear.

• I rise to my feet and walk down the train half a dozen cars. And let me say that one must leave timidity behind him on such a passear. The roofs of passenger coaches are not made for midnight promenades.

Passear is probably a misspelling of pasear, which is in Merriam-Webster. So, do I only correct the misspelling, or do I add `<span xml:lang="es">`, or do I keep the original's italics by using `<i xml:lang="es">` or `<em>`?

Thanks, 

Jay

[David Reimer]

This reminds me of The History of Henry Esmond, which likewise was
filled with bad and fake French:
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/william-makepeace-thackeray/the-history-of-henry-esmond

Here's my take on the specific cases:

1. `nom-de-rails` - I would leave both plain, given (as you note) "nom
de plume" is in MW. Getting the joke doesn't (I think) rely on
italics.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nom%20de%20plume
Also, I would remove the dashes, but do that in its own [Editorial] commit.

2. The "mongee" example: I would go with `<i xml:lang="fr">Mongee,
Madame, mongee</i>, no spika...`, but I stand to be corrected on that
one. (This is the sort of thing that came up in Esmond.)

3. `pasear` - given the MW presence,...
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pasear
...simply, first, remove italics as you would with any word in this
situation. Then, **in its own commit**, remove the extra "s", with a
commit message:
`[Editorial] passear -> pasear`
This is like the example in the Step-by-step guide, immediately above #16:
https://standardebooks.org/contribute/producing-an-ebook-step-by-step#diacritics

[Jay Martin]

Here are two suggestions for `se modernize-spelling`:

- Remove bare-legged to barelegged, which isn't in MW.
- Add cell-mate to cellmate.

And next, please help me through my growing pains. Help me understand the instruction not to bother with adding or removing dashes or spaces from compound words, other than what `se modernize-spelling` does. Please point me to an earlier discussion or article. Because the result seems neither true to the year of the book nor true to modern editing.

For example, here are lines from near the beginning of chapter 1 and chapter 2 of the book I'm preparing.

- "Also, it was fair-time, and the town was filled..."
- "...given, of course, night-time as an essential condition."

Both hyphens are old-fashioned. Now "fair-time" would be "fair time" and "night-time" would be "nighttime." But the editing steps leave "fair-time" and change to "nighttime."

I don't understand wanting to remove hyphens only when a modern closed compound is available but not simply by replacing a hyphen with a space. The result is a mix of hypermodern and quite-old-fashioned styles.

Also, the book has many old spellings, like manoeuvre, sombre, and woollen. So it seems inconsistent to introduce modern spellings, like easygoing, racetrack, and sleuthhound, by removing a hyphen. (Those examples are all from chapter 1.)

I completely understand that today, tomorrow, and someone are a big favor to a modern reader. But most compounds are not difficult for a modern reader, like easy-going, race-track, and sleuth-hound.

For the sake of consistency, I would leave every original hyphen in this passage:

"...the trains were composed of passenger coaches, box-cars, flat-cars, dead engines, cabooses, mail-cars, wrecking appliances, and all the riff-raff of worn-out and abandoned rolling-stock..."

Or else I would make the passage completely modern, with only one hyphen:

"...the trains were composed of passenger coaches, boxcars, flatcars, dead engines, cabooses, mail cars, wrecking appliances, and all the riffraff of worn-out and abandoned rolling stock..."

Thanks, 

Jay 

[Vince]

The “Manual spelling changes” section at the end of step 15 in the Step by Step is a fairly complete expansion on the subject.

Manoeuvre, sombre, and woollen aren’t old spellings, they’re British, and as discussed in the above section, we leave British spelling alone.

Thanks for the barelegged and cellmate heads up, I’ll submit a PR to our word file.

[Alex Cabal]

Thanks for those suggestions, Vince has made a PR to the tools and we've
updated the corpus to match.

> history-of-henry-esmond <https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/william-
> makepeace-thackeray/the-history-of-henry-esmond>

>
> Here's my take on the specific cases:
>
> 1. `nom-de-rails` - I would leave both plain, given (as you note) "nom
> de plume" is in MW. Getting the joke doesn't (I think) rely on
> italics.
> https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nom%20de%20plume
> <https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nom%20de%20plume>
> Also, I would remove the dashes, but do that in its own [Editorial]
> commit.
>
> 2. The "mongee" example: I would go with `<i xml:lang="fr">Mongee,
> Madame, mongee</i>, no spika...`, but I stand to be corrected on that
> one. (This is the sort of thing that came up in Esmond.)
>
> 3. `pasear` - given the MW presence,...

> https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pasear <https://
> www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pasear>

> ...simply, first, remove italics as you would with any word in this
> situation. Then, **in its own commit**, remove the extra "s", with a
> commit message:
> `[Editorial] passear -> pasear`
> This is like the example in the Step-by-step guide, immediately
> above #16:
> https://standardebooks.org/contribute/producing-an-ebook-step-by-

> step#diacritics <https://standardebooks.org/contribute/producing-an-
> ebook-step-by-step#diacritics>

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