Theos-Talk Archives (March 1995 Message tl00182)

There's a delay in getting a computerized copy of this
book ready. The files that I have from Vic turn out to
be Wordstar format, and do not recreate the book when I
read them into Ventura Publisher. I've written Vic for
the Ventura-format copy of the necessary files, but it
may take a few weeks to get a floppy from him.

Since the letters are one microfilm, it would be possible
to have the microfilm scanned, and one or more CD-ROM's
with the images released. I'm not sure how much money
this would cost, but it may require some permissions to
do.

As text, the first and second editions of "The Mahatma
Letters" is in the public domain. The editorial changes
done by Christmas Humphreys and Elsie Benjamin which made
the third edition are copyright by TPH Adyar in the 1950's
and will remain in copyright for some time to come.

Although the text of the early editions of "The Mahatma
Letters" is in the public domain, the letters themselves,
and possibly a fascimilie of their appearance (e.g.
direct pictures of the letters) may not be. The letters
are like a painting in a museum, which the owner retains
indefinite rights to reproductions of images of it.

The letters are in the British Museum, but I recall them
being also in a "Mahatma Letters Trust," at one time
headed by Elsie Benjamin and Christmas Humphreys. The
one time I was in England, many years ago, I was able to
see them because of having a letter from Elsie Benjamin
giving me permission to see them. Although I'm not absolutely
certain, I'd think that the Mahatma Letters Trust controls
permission regarding makining reproductions of the letters,
and would need to grant permission for a CD-ROM of their
iamges to be made.

While I follow up on getting Vic's book in ebook format
for 'theos-l', someone else might check on if there's
already a computerized version of the second edition,
which is in the public domain. Perhaps Nancy Coker could
check at T.S. Pasadena if that is one of the theosophical
books that they have scanned and computerized, and if so,
if they'd permit its free circulation on the Internet?

I'm not sure regarding the DOS version of Adobe Acrobat
running on a '286, but will check in a few days.

----

On another subject, someone has asked me a literary
question which I'd like to ask for help on. I've been
asked if it's possible to verify the existence of the
following book:

Author   : P.D. Ouspenski
Title    : "The Fourth Dimension"
Version  : 3rd edition, revised
Publisher: M.Z. Pirozhkov
Location : Pregrat, St. Petersburg, Russia
Year     : 1918

(I hope I copied down the information right!)

-- Eldon Tucker (eldon@netcom.com)