Charles Dickens - Sunday Stamps

The 7th February is the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Dickens. I have been a volunteer text corrector for the Dickens Journals Online (DJO) Project. The project aims to have all his works in the magazines Household Words and All The Year Round available for reading on line in time for his birthday. As of today they are 98% complete. You can read about DJO and listen to Simon Callow explaining what's going on at http://www.djo.org.uk/

Meanwhile the stamps I have for you this week are those issued in 1970 on the centenary of his death.

Charles Dickens 1812/1870

Top row: Pickwick Papers - Mr Pickwick and Sam (Weller); David Copperfield - Mr & Mrs Micawber

Bottom row: David Copperfield and Betsy Trotwood; Oliver Twist asking for more.

You will find other selections at Viridian's Sunday Stamps

Editing Charles Dickens

If you fancy some online editing practice Dickens Journals Online is the place to go. I've signed up for their Online Text Correction Project and am in the process of editing a magazine published by Dickens in All The Year Round in 1864.

The Dickens journals has been scanned and converted to text. The scanning process introduces errors in the text which need correction and that's where volunteer 'editors' are required to sort them out. The project needs to correct about 30,000 journal pages and they are hoping to complete the work before the official launch of the DJO site in 2012 as part of the Dickens Bicentenary Celebrations.

Anyone interested in taking part can sign up at http://www.djo.org.uk.