Month: September 2026

So when I was reading Peter Jameson’s Secret Language, I had reached out to one of the members of Esperanto Michigan to see if she knew him from years ago when the Esperanto Society of Michigan existed (sadly, they went defunct in 2012 otherwise I’d be a member of that instead of having to have cofounded Esperanto Michigan). She knew him, and I can’t wait to learn more the next time I see her!

But in the mean time, she had recommended another of his books, “Esperanto: A Language for the Global Village”. So I set about seeing if I could find a digital copy online. It only seems available on Amazon Kindle, which I do not have. As a side note: I refuse to get locked in to a proprietary eBook format – especially with Amazon and their willy-nilly rules for what you allegedly own. There have been multiple cases where they’ve just deleted a purchased eBook from Kindles when they decided to no longer carry it, with no notice, explanation, or refund. Bad business practice, in my opinion, but part of the world today where we increasingly own less of our purchases.

Nonetheless, I stumbled upon a thread on a website discussing the book and someone had pointed to a website – SylvanZaft.org – with more information about Dr. Zaft. I decided to check it out, but sadly it was gone. Pulling it up on Archive.org I found the site intact. It was just a single page, but had most of his collected works in PDF and text formats.

The page was created by someone as a tribute to Dr. Zaft. It was literally the only information on the internet I could find of him, and a valuable resource for other Esperantists. So I contacted the creator of the page and asked if he minded whether Esperanto Michigan could resurrect the page and maintain it. He gladly agreed. And, I think I got a new Esperanta amiko (Esperanto friend) out of the deal! He’s in Canada, just over the bridge, as we say here in Michigan. Well, actually he’s near Toronto, but close enough…

So, after a few hours of “scraping” (the technical term for making a downloaded copy of a website) the archived site, the domain re-purchased, and fighting with our webhosting company’s overly complicated system, I am glad to say that it’s now under our care and nearly exactly the same as it was when it was archived nearly 10 years ago! Eventually, I hope that we can discover more of Dr. Zaft’s works and add them. The site is actually a pretty cool design – check it out: www.SylvanZaft.org.

Thank you kindly to Gregorio Naçu for creating a lovely site, for gathering all the info and putting it together, and graciously allowing us to continue Dr. Zaft’s legacy!

A few days back, I was looking through Esperanto sites online and found a young adult book called “Peter Jameson’s Secret Language” and decided to get a copy. The digital version is available for free on Archive.org (find it here).

At first, I found it to be kind of a cute but silly little book about a boy who wants to communicate with his friends at school in a language no one could understand – Esperanto. But as it went on, I found it to be a little more involved in that. What really caught my interest at first was finding references to Michigan and Ontario early into the book. So I decided to do a little bit of digging on the author, Sylvan Zaft. It turns out that he lived in the metro Detroit area! I was excited because I was going to ask him to come speak to our group… but sadly I also found that he had passed in 2015.

After finishing the book just a short while ago, I find that I am extremely sad that he is no longer with us. Peter Jameson’s Secret Language is far more than a children’s book about a secret language – it is an encapsulation of the Esperanto movement over decades. It is an allegory of the discovery, growth, betrayal, decline, resurgence, and the hope that the language brings. Certainly, I did not expect to have such a raw emotional response; I knew some of the history of the language but to have it put in such form really packed a punch.

I find myself more determined than ever to promote the culture and community – la espero (the hope) – that Esperanto stands for.

When I started the journey of learning Esperanto, first in the early 2000s and then more earnestly starting in 2017, it was just a niché language to me. Something fun and unique. Learning the history behind it has been an education I could have never, in my dreams of dreams, imagined. Esperantists during the second world war were killed by Russians, were put into concentration camps by the Nazis; the language was used by the US Army as the “enemy language” during training (see the government manual on Archive.org here). It angers me that such a beautiful concept, such a beautiful language, was distorted and used to abuse humanity.

I woke up today as a burgeoning Esperantist who knew some of its history, and tonight I will sleep as an Esperantist who – at least on an emotional level – has felt a tiny portion of that history.

Fajro brulas en mi; nesatigebla soifo.

Dankon, D-ro Zaft.