My name is Andrew, and my involvement with Distributed Proofreaders Canada (under the name bunny-crunch), has mostly been related to books in Esperanto.

Although Esperanto has a rich literary history, including translations and original material right from the beginning in 1887, the first “Golden Age” of Esperanto literature was from the 1920s-1930s. Most of the Esperanto texts at Fadedpage are from this era. Within those texts, there is plenty of variety.

There is the collection of charming short stories, Noveloj by Henryk Sienkiewicz (an internationally popular Polish author, who was awarded the Nobel Prize), as translated by Lidja Zamenhof.

Kredu Min, Sinjorino! by Cezaro Rossetti is one of the highlights of the Esperanto novel in the twentieth century. It presents autobiographical sketches of life as a travelling salesman, often attempting to sell items of dubious value to people who do not need them. It has been translated into at least four other languages.

El la “Verda Biblio” is an amazing work of satire that deserves a blog post all to itself. It presents a humorously distorted history of the Esperanto movement, written in the style of Bible verses.

We also have the collection of original poetry Mia spektro, by the Latvian Nikolajs Ķurzēns. Working in such miniature forms is where his talents shone out brightly.

Tur-Strato 4 by Hans Weinhengst is a novel in a gritty, realistic vein. It tells of the unhappy life of the underpriviledged in the slums of Vienna.

In a very contrasting mood, we find Tri angloj alilande, by the British John Merchant. It tells the story of three British gentlemen and their bumbling misadventures on the continent. The humoristic style is reminiscent of Three men in a boat.

Por recenzo! is a story (perhaps we could call it a novella) with an experimental mosaic-form, where the point of view keeps shifting from the life of one character to another. Part fiction, part study of contemporary times.

There are many more Esperanto books worth preserving that are public domain in Canada. Some are currently in preparation—come join us and proofread a few pages. For more information about how to volunteer, check out our companion site, Distributed Proofreaders Canada.