The Project Gutenberg eBook of X Marks the Pedwalk
    
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.

Title: X Marks the Pedwalk

Author: Fritz Leiber

Illustrator: John Pederson

Release date: August 11, 2016 [eBook #52776]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online
        Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK X MARKS THE PEDWALK ***




Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net









                          X MARKS THE PEDWALK

                            BY FRITZ LEIBER

           [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
                     Worlds of Tomorrow April 1963
         Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
         the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]




                This is how it all began--the terrible
                civil strife that devastates our world!


    Based in material in Ch. 7--"First Clashes of the Wheeled and
    Footed Sects"--of Vol. 3 of Burger's monumental _History of
    Traffic_, published by the Foundation for Twenty-Second
    Century Studies.

The raggedy little old lady with the big shopping bag was in the exact
center of the crosswalk when she became aware of the big black car
bearing down on her.

Behind the thick bullet-proof glass its seven occupants had a misty
look, like men in a diving bell.

She saw there was no longer time to beat the car to either curb.
Veering remorselessly, it would catch her in the gutter.

Useless to attempt a feint and double-back, such as any venturesome
child executed a dozen times a day. Her reflexes were too slow.

Polite vacuous laughter came from the car's loudspeaker over the
engine's mounting roar.

From her fellow pedestrians lining the curbs came a sigh of horror.

The little old lady dipped into her shopping bag and came up with a big
blue-black automatic. She held it in both fists, riding the recoils
like a rodeo cowboy on a bucking bronco.

Aiming at the base of the windshield, just as a big-game hunter aims
at the vulnerable spine of a charging water buffalo over the horny
armor of its lowered head, the little old lady squeezed off three shots
before the car chewed her down.

From the right-hand curb a young woman in a wheelchair shrieked an
obscenity at the car's occupants.

Smythe-de Winter, the driver, wasn't happy. The little old lady's
last shot had taken two members of his car pool. Bursting through the
laminated glass, the steel-jacketed slug had traversed the neck of
Phipps-McHeath and buried itself in the skull of Horvendile-Harker.

Braking viciously, Smythe-de Winter rammed the car over the right-hand
curb. Pedestrians scattered into entries and narrow arcades, among them
a youth bounding high on crutches.

But Smythe-de Winter got the girl in the wheelchair.

Then he drove rapidly out of the Slum Ring into the Suburbs, a shred
of rattan swinging from the flange of his right fore mudguard for
a trophy. Despite the two-for-two casualty list, he felt angry and
depressed. The secure, predictable world around him seemed to be
crumbling.

       *       *       *       *       *

While his companions softly keened a dirge to Horvy and Phipps and
quietly mopped up their blood, he frowned and shook his head.

"They oughtn't to let old ladies carry magnums," he murmured.

Witherspoon-Hobbs nodded agreement across the front-seat corpse. "They
oughtn't to let 'em carry anything. God, how I hate Feet," he muttered,
looking down at his shrunken legs. "Wheels forever!" he softly cheered.

The incident had immediate repercussions throughout the city. At the
combined wake of the little old lady and the girl in the wheelchair,
a fiery-tongued speaker inveighed against the White-Walled Fascists
of Suburbia, telling to his hearers, the fabled wonders of old Los
Angeles, where pedestrians were sacrosanct, even outside crosswalks. He
called for a hobnail march across the nearest lawn-bowling alleys and
perambulator-traversed golf courses of the motorists.

At the Sunnyside Crematorium, to which the bodies of Phipps and Horvy
had been conveyed, an equally impassioned and rather more grammatical
orator reminded his listeners of the legendary justice of old Chicago,
where pedestrians were forbidden to carry small arms and anyone with
one foot off the sidewalk was fair prey. He broadly hinted that a
holocaust, primed if necessary with a few tankfuls of gasoline, was the
only cure for the Slums.

Bands of skinny youths came loping at dusk out of the Slum Ring into
the innermost sections of the larger doughnut of the Suburbs slashing
defenseless tires, shooting expensive watchdogs and scrawling filthy
words on the pristine panels of matrons' runabouts which never ventured
more than six blocks from home.

Simultaneously squadrons of young suburban motorcycles and scooterites
roared through the outermost precincts of the Slum Ring, harrying
children off sidewalks, tossing stink-bombs through second-story
tenement windows and defacing hovel-fronts with sprays of black paint.

Incident--a thrown brick, a cut corner, monster tacks in the portico
of the Auto Club--were even reported from the center of the city,
traditionally neutral territory.

The Government hurriedly acted, suspending all traffic between the
Center and the Suburbs and establishing a 24-hour curfew in the Slum
Ring. Government agents moved only by centipede-car and pogo-hopper to
underline the point that they favored neither contending side.

The day of enforced non-movement for Feet and Wheels was spent in
furtive vengeful preparations. Behind locked garage doors, machine-guns
that fired through the nose ornament were mounted under hoods, illegal
scythe blades were welded to oversize hubcaps and the stainless steel
edges of flange fenders were honed to razor sharpness.

While nervous National Guardsmen hopped about the deserted sidewalks of
the Slum Ring, grim-faced men and women wearing black armbands moved
through the webwork of secret tunnels and hidden doors, distributing
heavy-caliber small arms and spike-studded paving blocks, piling
cobblestones on strategic roof-tops and sapping upward from the secret
tunnels to create car-traps. Children got ready to soap intersections
after dark. The Committee of Pedestrian Safety, sometimes known as
Robespierre's Rats, prepared to release its two carefully hoarded
anti-tank guns.

       *       *       *       *       *

At nightfall, under the tireless urging of the Government,
representatives of the Pedestrians and the Motorists met on a huge
safety island at the boundary of the Slum Ring and the Suburbs.

Underlings began a noisy dispute as to whether Smythe-de Winter had
failed to give a courtesy honk before charging, whether the little old
lady had opened fire before the car had come within honking distance,
how many wheels of Smythe-de's car had been on the sidewalk when he hit
the girl in the wheelchair and so on. After a little while the High
Pedestrian and the Chief Motorist exchanged cautious winks and drew
aside.

The red writhing of a hundred kerosene flares and the mystic yellow
pulsing of a thousand firefly lamps mounted on yellow sawhorses ranged
around the safety island illumined two tragic, strained faces.

"A word before we get down to business," the Chief Motorist whispered.
"What's the current S.Q. of your adults?"

"Forty-one and dropping," the High Pedestrian replied, his eyes
fearfully searching from side to side for eavesdroppers. "I can hardly
get aides who are halfway _compos mentis_."

"Our own Sanity Quotient is thirty-seven," the Chief Motorist revealed.
He shrugged helplessly.... "The wheels inside my people's heads are
slowing down. I do not think they will be speeded up in my lifetime."

"They say Government's only fifty-two," the other said with a matching
shrug.

"Well, I suppose we must scrape out one more compromise," the one
suggested hollowly, "though I must confess there are times when I think
we're all the figments of a paranoid's dream."

Two hours of concentrated deliberations produced the new Wheel-Foot
Articles of Agreement. Among other points, pedestrian handguns were
limited to a slightly lower muzzle velocity and to .38 caliber and
under, while motorists were required to give three honks at one block
distance before charging a pedestrian in a crosswalk. Two wheels over
the curb changed a traffic kill from third-degree manslaughter to petty
homicide. Blind pedestrians were permitted to carry hand grenades.

Immediately the Government went to work. The new Wheel-Foot Articles
were loudspeakered and posted. Detachments of police and psychiatric
social hoppers centipedaled and pogoed through the Slum Ring, seizing
outsize weapons and giving tranquilizing jet-injections to the unruly.
Teams of hypnotherapists and mechanics scuttled from home to home
in the Suburbs and from garage to garage, in-chanting a conformist
serenity and stripping illegal armament from cars. On the advice of
a rogue psychiatrist, who said it would channel off aggressions, a
display of bull-fighting was announced, but this had to be canceled
when a strong protest was lodged by the Decency League, which had a
large mixed Wheel-Foot membership.

At dawn, curfew was lifted in the Slum Ring and traffic reopened
between the Suburbs and the Center. After a few uneasy moments it
became apparent that the _status quo_ had been restored.

       *       *       *       *       *

Smythe-de Winter tooled his gleaming black machine along the Ring. A
thick steel bolt with a large steel washer on either side neatly filled
the hole the little old lady's slug had made in the windshield.

A brick bounced off the roof. Bullets pattered against the side
windows.

Smythe-de ran a handkerchief around his neck under his collar and
smiled.

A block ahead children were darting into the street, cat-calling and
thumbing their noses. Behind one of them limped a fat dog with a spiked
collar.

Smythe-de suddenly gunned his motor. He didn't hit any of the children,
but he got the dog.

A flashing light on the dash showed him the right front tire was losing
pressure. Must have hit the collar as well! He thumbed the matching
emergency-air button and the flashing stopped.

He turned toward Witherspoon-Hobbs and said with thoughtful
satisfaction, "I like a normal orderly world, where you always have a
little success, but not champagne-heady; a little failure, but just
enough to brace you."

Witherspoon-Hobbs was squinting at the next crosswalk. Its center was
discolored by a brownish stain ribbon-tracked by tires.

"That's where you bagged the little old lady, Smythe-de," he remarked.
"I'll say this for her now: she had spirit."

"Yes, that's where I bagged her," Smythe-de agreed flatly. He
remembered wistfully the witchlike face growing rapidly larger, her
jerking shoulders in black bombazine, the wild white-circled eyes. He
suddenly found himself feeling that this was a very dull day.







*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK X MARKS THE PEDWALK ***


    

Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will
be renamed.

Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works,
so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United
States without permission and without paying copyright
royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part
of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™
concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following
the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use
of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for
copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very
easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation
of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project
Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away—you may
do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected
by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark
license, especially commercial redistribution.


START: FULL LICENSE

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE

PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK

To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free
distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project
Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
Project Gutenberg™ License available with this file or online at
www.gutenberg.org/license.

Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg™
electronic works

1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™
electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your
possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
Project Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be bound
by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person
or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.

1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be
used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic works
even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of this
agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg™
electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.

1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the
Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the individual
works in the collection are in the public domain in the United
States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the
United States and you are located in the United States, we do not
claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,
displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as
all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope
that you will support the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting
free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg™
works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
Project Gutenberg™ name associated with the work. You can easily
comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg™ License when
you share it without charge with others.

1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are
in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,
check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this
agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,
distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any
other Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes no
representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any
country other than the United States.

1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:

1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other
immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must appear
prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™ work (any work
on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the
phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed,
performed, viewed, copied or distributed:

    This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
    other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
    whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
    of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
    at www.gutenberg.org. If you
    are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws
    of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
  
1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is
derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the
copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in
the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project
Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply
either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or
obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg™
trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.

1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted
with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
will be linked to the Project Gutenberg™ License for all works
posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the
beginning of this work.

1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™
License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg™.

1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
Gutenberg™ License.

1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work in a format
other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official
version posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ website
(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain
Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the
full Project Gutenberg™ License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.

1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works
unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.

1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
access to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works
provided that:

    • You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
        the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method
        you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
        to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he has
        agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
        Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
        within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
        legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
        payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
        Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
        Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
        Literary Archive Foundation.”
    
    • You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
        you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
        does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™
        License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
        copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
        all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™
        works.
    
    • You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
        any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
        electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
        receipt of the work.
    
    • You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
        distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works.
    

1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project
Gutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different terms than
are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing
from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of
the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set
forth in Section 3 below.

1.F.

1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™
electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or
other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or
cannot be read by your equipment.

1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right
of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGE.

1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in
lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person
or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second
opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If
the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
without further opportunities to fix the problem.

1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO
OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.

1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of
damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement
violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the
agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or
limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or
unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the
remaining provisions.

1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in
accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™
electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this
or any Project Gutenberg™ work, (b) alteration, modification, or
additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any
Defect you cause.

Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg™

Project Gutenberg™ is synonymous with the free distribution of
electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It
exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations
from people in all walks of life.

Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg™’s
goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will
remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
and permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and future
generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see
Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org.

Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation

The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit
501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification
number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws.

The Foundation’s business office is located at 809 North 1500 West,
Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up
to date contact information can be found at the Foundation’s website
and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact

Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation

Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without widespread
public support and donations to carry out its mission of
increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest
array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
status with the IRS.

The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state
visit www.gutenberg.org/donate.

While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
approach us with offers to donate.

International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.

Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation
methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate.

Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg™ electronic works

Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
Gutenberg™ concept of a library of electronic works that could be
freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
distributed Project Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose network of
volunteer support.

Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed
editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
edition.

Most people start at our website which has the main PG search
facility: www.gutenberg.org.

This website includes information about Project Gutenberg™,
including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.