If anyone is looking for a novel, "Stoner" (one of the books reissued by NYRB) was an incredible read. I read most of it in the loft of a private library deep in the Ventana Wilderness (west of Big Sur). It was hard to put down and deeply moving. I ended up buying about five copies that I gave away to friends.

When I saw a HN thread about NYRB I thought "oh they reissued that novel I loved, Stoner". Glad to see I wasn't the only one who was surprised by how much they enjoyed it.

They published "The Anatomy of Melancholy", which is a insanely long / funny / wild 17th century tract on (considerably more than just) depression.

IDEA: Can organizations like YC and other VCs fund such activities? Series would have a nicely printed version and a pdf version free to read online. All nicely typeset. Can start with a series on “Forgotten Sci-fi” classics, e.g. Tiptree’s stories, A Voyage to Arcturus, etc.

How much would such a thing cost?

From the article:

> It would be difficult to think of a less commercially minded venture in the early 21st century.

This would be more of a wealthy guy side business instead of a VC backed growth business...

Absolutely! I didn’t mean backing as in backing a business but in a philanthropic sense. If one get a number of rich tech people or VC or incubator to shell in $100k, one can easily “raise” $2-3M for the endeavor.

And they can use it for PR, as in “were supporting Arts, too.” I think this would come handy in current climate that’s getting more and more hostile to tech companies.

Voyage to Arcturus and most if not all of Alice Sheldon's (aka Tiptree's) stories look like they're in print, and published as ebooks (and on pirate sites if they're not stocked by your local library). Open Road and Gollancz have been publishing a bunch of older science fiction like that.

Buying out copyright for books that a publisher is selling would be much more expensive. A few million dollars wouldn't go very far if every copyright holder wanted, for instance, a modest $5k per book to buy out their copyrights. And why would they sell their copyright for pennies, particularly when they already bought out the copyright from the original publisher? They put in all the effort to re-publish the book, and marginal and up-front costs now are zero (ebooks) or low (print on demand).

It's not obvious that making obscure books available for free would be doing them any favors. With the avenues of libraries and piracy available, having a non-zero price should help boost the perceived value of the books.

It is surprising more of these people don’t do highly visible philanthropy.

The world doesn’t need another university building for free.

I don't know what Airmail.news is but I like it.

It's run by the former editor of Vanity Fair. Supposed to be a light-hearted glossy magazine about politics/society/entertainment, except in an email newsletter.