Hi Reader! A few months ago I began to wonder: “Can I somehow work a bibliography into George Moore Interactive?” Probably not, I thought, but then I took a closer look. Turns out the answer is yes, it is possible and now it’s happening.

Edwin Gilcher, Moore’s tireless bibliographer, was my friend for 30 years, beginning soon after the publication of A Bibliography of George Moore (Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1970). That magisterial volume got me knocking on Edwin’s door, not far from Albany, New York, while I was a student at New York University.

18 years later, Edwin’s ongoing sleuthing led to the publication of his Supplement to A Bibliography of George Moore (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe, 1988), which graciously mentions me on the title page. I and others having joined Edwin on his quest to anatomize the “man of wax.”

The Bibliography is long out of print though available from secondhand booksellers. Meantime, Colin Smythe still has a few copies of the Supplement (one of which he donated to this project). If you collect Moore, you can buy a copy before they’re all gone.

According to family members, Edwin didn’t stop questing in 1988. His papers at Arizona State University Library include unpublished notes. If you go there to study them, and if you lay your hands on his publications, your understanding and appreciation of Moore’s life and work will rest on a very solid foundation. 

But what if you don’t want to or can’t? What if you prefer to do everything on your desktop or mobile device, quickly, easily, freely?

I began my answer to that question by investigating Edwin’s copyright. The copyright holder in 1970 no longer has it. The copyright holder in 1988 is deceased and nobody has inherited it. Get the picture?

I found myself unable to request permission to update and e-publish Edwin’s invaluable work online. So I asked stakeholders in his legacy for their input. They said go for it. Thus the 20th century Bibliography of George Moore is about to have a second life in the 21st century cloud.

My next step, after clearing the copyright hurdle, was to scan Edwin’s books. The books haven’t been digitized for the public, so I had to do it myself. I identified several vendors who scan books professionally and qualified Blue Leaf Book Scanning in Missouri. They are reputable, economical and they produce high quality.

I know their quality is fine because today I inspected their fresh scans of the Bibliography and Supplement. Blue Leaf used a “destructive” technique in which they destroyed the printed books I provided in order to generate the best digital content. I got four texts of each book: high and low resolution Adobe PDF, formatted and unformatted Microsoft Word. All are machine readable, high fidelity and editable.

Examining the files, it’s as though I manually keyed in the content of Edwin’s books (well over 300 technical pages) on my Mac. In reality I keyed nothing. The efficiency of state-of-the-art scanning is astounding to somebody like me, who painfully remembers what it’s like to type and proof a large manuscript on a Smith Corona. How dreadfully time consuming, costly and headache-inducing that was!

So Edwin’s books are now digital! My next step is to break the digital texts into tidy pieces, one for each “A” title (Books and Pamphlets); then build intelligent super pieces forming The Bibliography of George Moore by Edwin Gilcher, edited by me. The super pieces will include Contributions, Periodical Appearances and Translations. The whole enchilada.

I’m going to make Edwin’s bibliography (and Moore’s writing) dynamic, interactive, discoverable and relatable for the next generation of readers, scholars, connoisseurs and collectors. Fingers crossed. I’ll keep you posted.

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