Most of us know Project Gutenberg as that website with 70,000 free ebooks. But Le Projet Gutenberg (1971-2009) by Marie Lebert asks us to look closer. It's not a dry history of file formats. Instead, it's the human story of a radical idea born in a pre-internet world.

The Story

The plot is simple but powerful. In 1971, a student named Michael Hart gets access to a university computer. Instead of doing complex calculations, he types out the Declaration of Independence and shares it. His goal? To create a vast, free digital library. The book follows the next four decades of this project, which grew not through corporate funding, but through the sheer will of volunteers around the world. We see the early days of typing books by hand, the debates over which texts to save, and the slow, painstaking process of building a library one scanned page at a time. The conflict isn't against a villain, but against obscurity, technical limits, and the sheer scale of the dream.

Why You Should Read It

I loved this book because it made me appreciate something I take for granted. Every time I download a free classic, I now think of the unnamed volunteer who probably typed it. Lebert shows us that big cultural shifts don't always start with fanfare. Sometimes, they start with one person at a keyboard, believing information should be free. The book is filled with small, moving details—like volunteers proofreading in memory of loved ones—that give the whole digital library a heart. It’s a powerful reminder of what passion projects can achieve.

Final Verdict

This is a perfect read for anyone curious about the early days of the digital age, but who prefers human stories over tech specs. It's for book lovers who want to know the origin story of their favorite free library, and for anyone who needs a dose of optimism about what people can build together, without a profit motive. If you've ever used Project Gutenberg, this book is like getting to thank the team behind the curtain.