Haitian authors

[jlso4u]

There's a large body of Haitian literature in book form, primarily in french but also in other languages like Kreyòl, english, & spanish, which could be made into audiobooks. Is there any interest in working on this? As an example to start brainstorming, there's Anténor Firmin (d. 1911) whose most famous work was translated into several languages.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant%C3%A9nor_Firmin

[annise]

I'm sure many would be interested. However you say translations - the annoying thing about translations is that they have a copyright of their own. Which is probably fair enough - making a good translation is hard work. So it's the date of publication of the translated book that counts, not when it was originally written - do you know of any etexts available online?

Anne

[Piotrek81]

While Firmin's most famous work wasn't translated into English until 2000, which makes it impossible for LibriVox to record, the French version could well be made into an audiobook The same goes for the other works listed by the Wikipedia article. There is a dedicated thread for French-language proposals in the subforum at the bottom of the page viewtopic.php?t=16131 . Does the "Digital Library of the Carribean" allow Public Domain use?

EDIT: Some of the works are also available on Gallica, which is a source we've used before. https://gallica.bnf.fr/services/engine/search/sru?operation=searchRetrieve&version=1.2&query=%28%28dc.creator%20all%20%22Firmin%2C%20Ant%C3%A9nor%22%20or%20dc.contributor%20all%20%22Firmin%2C%20Ant%C3%A9nor%22%29%29&keywords=Firmin,%20Ant%C3%A9nor&suggest=2

No idea about other translations, though, let alone other authors

[jlso4u]

Some more Haitians who likely have some work that should be public domain: Benito Sylvain (d. 1915) edited a newspaper & published this book.

https://dloc.com/AA00093715/00001/pdf

Baron de Vastey (d. 1820) has works which were published in english, french, & dutch well before the 20th century.

https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL3466132A/Baron_de_Vastey

Does the "Digital Library of the Carribean" allow Public Domain use?

The 2 works I found attributed to Firmin there have slightly different copyright statements, but they both include this:

"The University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries respect the intellectual property rights of others and do not claim any copyright interest in this item."

& this:

"Users of this work have responsibility for determining copyright status prior to reusing, publishing or reproducing this item for purposes other than what is allowed by fair use or other copyright exemptions. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions may require permission of the copyright holder. The Smathers Libraries would like to learn more about this item and invite individuals or organizations to contact Digital Services (UFDC@uflib.ufl.edu) with any additional information they can provide."

Which lead me to believe the answer is yes, at least for these. Available here:

https://dloc.com/results?creator=Antenor%20Firmin%20

[Piotrek81]

I can't answer what the status of DLC scans would be for Librivox, but I've found some texts by Benito Sylvain on Gallica too:

https://gallica.bnf.fr/services/engine/search/sru?operation=searchRetrieve&version=1.2&query=%28%28dc.creator%20all%20%22Sylvain%2C%20Benito%22%20or%20dc.contributor%20all%20%22Sylvain%2C%20Benito%22%29%29&keywords=Sylvain,%20Benito&suggest=2

EDIT:
Also, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Search/Home?lookfor=Benito+Sylvain&searchtype=author&ft=ft&setft=true
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Search/Home?lookfor=Ant%C3%A9nor+Firmin&searchtype=author&ft=ft&setft=true
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Search/Home?lookfor=Baron+de+Vastey&searchtype=author&ft=ft&setft=true

[jlso4u]

Throwing out another author: Louis-Joseph Janvier (d. 1911).

https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Search/Home?lookfor=Louis+Joseph+Janvier&searchtype=author&ft=ft&setft=true

I'll probably keep posting in this thread for organizational reasons, but is it likely that the texts with HathiTrust or Gallica full views can be taken directly to appropriate language threads for the non-english stuff? It doesn't seem like the english ones would need anything further other than an interested/willing coordinator.

[Piotrek81]

Throwing out another author: Louis-Joseph Janvier (d. 1911).

https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Search/Home?lookfor=Louis+Joseph+Janvier&searchtype=author&ft=ft&setft=true

I'll probably keep posting in this thread for organizational reasons, but is it likely that the texts with HathiTrust or Gallica full views can be taken directly to appropriate language threads for the non-english stuff? It doesn't seem like the english ones would need anything further other than an interested/willing coordinator.

I don't speak French, but if you do, the link to the French thread is viewtopic.php?t=16131 (I don't think anyone will yell at you if you post in English, though ).

[flavo5000]

Throwing out another author: Louis-Joseph Janvier (d. 1911).

https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Search/Home?lookfor=Louis+Joseph+Janvier&searchtype=author&ft=ft&setft=true

I'll probably keep posting in this thread for organizational reasons, but is it likely that the texts with HathiTrust or Gallica full views can be taken directly to appropriate language threads for the non-english stuff? It doesn't seem like the english ones would need anything further other than an interested/willing coordinator.

Anything showing as available for Full View for US Residents in Hathitrust should be ok to read from here. Not sure what the policy is on Gallica.

[annise]

"Fair Use" seems to mean things like quoting in a review etc.
But LV recordings are released into the public domain which means anybody can do anything with them including selling them so things become more tricky.
And we tend to not take risks. Everything we do is a team effort and all involved could be considered lawbreakers - unlikely I know but it is possible

Anne