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1660 Diary Becomes 2003 Weblog
EnlightenmentFan writes "When technology improves a book that was already good, that's good news for nerds. I'm not talking about the Two Towers, but the diary of Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) (pronounced Peeps, as in marshmallow peeps), whose diaries record not only the Great Fire of London and the plague but his many seductions, trickeries, encounters with the king, almost getting executed, etc. Brit blogger Phil Gyford realized that this diary would make a great weblog--clickable footnotes, online feedback and all. So now he is serializing it daily, starting Jan 2, 1660, supposedly over the next ten years. The BBC has the backstory. I hope Gyford will deviate from Gutenberg's 1893 version to include some of Pepys's more outrageous sexual adventures, reduced by the 1893 version to "....""
Never argue with the Viscount Crowhurst, as according to the NYT 9/27/61:
...
London, Sept. 26
Members of the historic Pepys family said today they pronounce the name
"Pepp-iss" not Peeps"
On the other hand, the Encyclopedia Britannica asserts: "The name was
pronounced in the seventeenth century and has always been pronounced by the
family, 'Peeps.' "
The discrepancy came to light when Lady Paulina Mary Louise Pepys faced
a magistrate on a traffic charge. The magistrate, A.A. Pereira, pronounced
it "Peeps."
"Sorry," Lady Paulina said, "but it's Pepp-iss."
The magistrate, thus corrected, then fined her two pounds.
"Of course I'm related to Samuel Pepys, and if he called himself 'Peeps'
he was the first member of the family to do so and none has done it since.
I don't like it pronounced 'Peeps.' "
The present head of the family is John Digby Thomas Pepys, the 7th Earl
of Cottenham and the 10th Baronet Pepys. His secretary said:
"I can assure you that Lord Cottenham pronounces it 'Pepp-iss' and so do
his son, the Viscount Crowhurst"