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!