Hillsdale College announced April 11 that it would publish volumes one to 17 of “The Churchill Documents” as e-books. Each volume is available online for $9.99.
The price of the e-books are about 29 percent of the $35 cost of the print editions, except volumes 17 and 18, which are $65 each in print.
“The Churchill Documents” are a product of the Churchill Project, ran by President and official biographer of Winston Churchill Larry Arnn. Volumes 18-23, the final five Churchill documents, will become available as e-books as the college publishes them and converts them into the proper format.
“The digital publication of this record presents an unparalleled opportunity to study how one of the most powerful and significant individuals in history did his work and made his judgments,” Arnn said in a press release.
Research Assistant to the President Soren Geiger said each volume has a three to six month delay after being published in print before it’s ready for release as an e-book.
“It’s incredibly practical to publish ‘The Churchill Documents’ as e-books,” Geiger said. “They weigh a total of 90 pounds, which is as much as four car tires.”
Geiger said publishing the documents as e-books now is important so that the college holds the rights for the electronic form of “The Churchill Documents.” Churchill’s family could have given the rights to publish the e-books to another had Hillsdale College let the opportunity go.
Converting each volume to e-book format is a painstakingly deliberate process, Geiger said.
“No system can recognize each character on a flat PDF better than what the human eye can do,” Geiger said. “It takes line by line reading and proofreading, making sure all the spacing and characters are correctly recognized.”
Releasing the e-books created a great tool for Churchill scholars but is only a small part of what the Churchill Project wants to accomplish. Volumes of text, telegrams, and letters are sitting in boxes, waiting for transcription and publication.
“Thankfully, the subject of the work is the most fascinating man of the 20th century,” Geiger said. “There’s a lot of laughter and storytelling from our team as we’re working on reading these documents.”
