e-books celebrate their 40th Birthday

I'm hoping that one day I'll be sitting in a Quiz when they ask 'What year was the first e-book published ?'

Unbelievably e-books have now been around since 1971 when Michael Hart (who died recently) typed the American Declaration of Independence into the mainframe computer at the University of Illinois.

Thus was born the first digital library : Project Gutenberg, named after the inventor of the first printing press. Hart's aim was to make books as widely available as possible, and to "break down the bars of ignorance and illiteracy"

Project Gutenberg is still going strong, making freely available out of print materials.