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HUCK FINN GOES HIGH TECH
The Buffalo
and Erie County Public Library
Produces Multimedia CD-ROM of Twain Classic
For the first time ever, Mark Twain’s original, handwritten manuscript of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn will be available in a multimedia, digital edition. The Buffalo & Erie County Public Library (B&ECPL), in collaboration with The Poetry/Rare Books Collection of the State University of New York at Buffalo, will produce a single, fully illustrated CD-ROM for use as a scholastic and reference tool, allowing users the opportunity to study the manuscript and how it relates to the published text. The CD-ROM will provide documents about the literary, social and cultural history of 19th century America. Scholarly interpretations of Huckleberry Finn as well as photographs, videotapes and audio-tapes related to the novel will also be included. The edition will bring American literature, with all of its rich artistic and intellectual traditions, directly to the home, classroom or work place in an organized and resourceful manner.
Using the latest computer technology, this multimedia CD-ROM will present a variety of established resources to understand and appreciate Huckleberry Finn in a completely innovative manner. The CD-ROM will be designed to provide four different audiences with specific pathways to obtain appropriate information. Each has been designed for a specific audience, including:
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The information in each pathway will be divided into headings such as characterization, historical setting and cultural history. Each heading will include links to passages in other works by Mark Twain relating to Huckleberry Finn. Social, cultural and historical contexts will be presented through documents regarding immigration and ethnic stereotype slavery, race, abolitionism, censorship, 19th century American childhood and the geography of the novel’s action. The history of the manuscript and its connections to Buffalo, New York, will also be included.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn CD-ROM Edition is a collaborative effort of the B&ECPL, the Library Foundation of Buffalo and Erie County and The Poetry/Rare Books Collection, State University of New York at Buffalo. In July 1997, the B&ECPL achieved an historic milestone by obtaining the publication rights to the Huckleberry Finn original manuscript. The B&ECPL proposed the CD-ROM project to not only make the manuscript available to a larger reading audience, but to create new methods of teaching literature and culture in all classrooms.
This project is funded primarily through the generosity of the John R. Oishei Foundation, with additional funding received from the Constance Stafford Charitable Lead Trust. The John R. Oishei Foundation is committed to enhancing the quality of life for Buffalo area residents by supporting medical research, health care, education and the cultural, social, civic and other charitable needs of the community. The Foundation was established in 1940 by John R. Oishei, founder of Trico Products Corporation, one of the world's leading manufacturers of windshield wiper systems.
LOOK FOR THE RELEASE OF THE CD-ROM IN THE FALL OF 2001!