Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Gold Mining, 1855

In 1855, a Scottish man headed to the goldfields of Ballarat during Australia's 19th century gold rush. Recently, that miner looking for his fortune brought a small fortune to an antiquarian book dealer. The miner's diary was sold to the Gold Museum for $50,000, and will be on display there. The book had already been loaned to the museum, in anticipation of financing, so there was little to wonder if the book would end up anywhere else. The Courier also offers some excerpts from the diary, for those of you curious about the daily life of a gold miner.

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posted by Azrael Brown at 10:00 AM 0 comments

Sunday, October 19, 2008

The Orwell Diaries

George Orwell, prolific writer and political philosopher, kept a diary, which is online, being republished day-by-day exactly 70 years after it was originally written. In late 1938, Orwell was establishing a household for himself in northern Africa, and learning how to get milk out of the African goats. I'm unsure whether this is engaging because of the writer, or if the writing is actually interesting. I think I'm riding on the belief that, since it's Orwell, things will pick up and something amazing will happen. In reality, probably not so much.

(via: via)

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posted by Azrael Brown at 9:43 AM 0 comments