Robert Carlton Brown was an American writer and publisher, that was a bestseller during the early 1900s.
After seeing his first “talkie” (a movie with sound) he proceeded to write a book called “The Readies” in 1930.
In this piece, he wrote:
“The written word hasn’t kept up with the age… The movies have outmanoeuvred it. We have the talkies, but as yet no Readies.”
“To continue reading at today’s speed, I must have a machine.”
“A simple reading machine which I can carry or move around, attach to any old electric light plug and read hundred-thousand-word novels in 10 minutes if I want to, and I want to.”
“allow readers to adjust the type size and avoid paper cuts.”
40 years later in 1971, Michael S. Hart, an American author, invented the eBook as we know it today, years before the internet even existed.
The first published work was created on July 4th 1971 and was the United States Declaration of Independence. This was the very start of Project Gutenberg.
He later on uploaded works that were a part of the public domain (e.g. free from copyright) such as The Bible and the works of well knows writers such as Homer, Shakespeare and Mark Twain.
In 1998, the first handheld eBook was produced by NuvoMedia. It was a device that could store up to ten eBooks and had an LCD screen like the one the handheld console Gameboy would have as a comparison during that time.
The eBooks were uploaded on the device by connecting it to a computer.
It had a retail price of $499 in 1998, which is the equivalent of $918 (£734,48) in today's economy.
Rocket eBook.
So what is an eBook exactly?
To start off, an eBook is short for Electronic Book and is a digital form of a book that can be read and stored on any device. Keep in mind though, that the text on an eBook is non-editable, just like a real book!
The different formats of an eBook are the following: