This repository represents the ITP independent study digital edition of the letters of Harold and Lenore Karlin using Jekyll and Github.
In 1945, letters mattered more. When transportation was slower and more expensive, and telecommunications were less reliable, human correspondence relied on postage and matter moving across time and space. Add to these general concerns the pressures of war, the translocating force of armed troops. Levels of language and time unfold in the daily letters written between a Jewish couple at the outset of their marriage, 26 year old Lenore Karlin, Women’s Army Corps (WAC) volunteer and new mother, and 27 year old Harold Karlin, an army doctor stationed in Linz, Austria. What is the best way to present this archive? What stories of war, systems of language, and concerns of culture exist in the months they wrote? By creating a way to distribute these contents that simulates the temporality of this exchange, I aim to demonstrate the gaps of time in wartime correspondence.
Lives in Letters serves as the initial prototype of a digital edition of the letters of Lenore and Harold Karlin. The project will build parameters of the archive to establish a fluidly readable text. The initial version will involve five to ten letters that can be read online via desktop or tablet. The contents and pages will be made open access with code available on Github. Ideally, the edition will prove a resource for readers curious about the content, scholars invested in the epistolary mode of communication, and editors wishing to develop their own digital editions of letters. Ultimately, I would like to use this initial start-up phase to develop an Ed. template for digital letter editions that could expand to make a platform for individual users to upload and curate their own personal letter collections.
I created my edition using Alex Gil's Ed Minimal Edition template.
- Ed sample site is the first edition built with Ed.
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To learn how to install and begin using Ed, please visit our documentation page.