TY - BOOK ID - 101209263 TI - Pre-web digital publishing and the lore of electronic literature PY - 2022 SN - 1108903169 1108828884 1108904645 110890565X PB - Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, DB - UniCat KW - Electronic publishing KW - History. KW - Publishers and publishing KW - Desktop publishing KW - Digital publishing KW - Online publishing UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:101209263 AB - This Element examines a watershed moment in the recent history of digital publishing through a case study of the pre-web, serious hypertext periodical, the Eastgate Quarterly Review of Hypertext (1994-1995). Early hypertext writing relied on standalone, mainframe computers and specialized authoring software. With the Web launching as a mass distribution platform, EQRH faced a fast-evolving technological landscape, paired with an emergent gift and open access economy. Its non-linear writing experiments afford key insights into historical, medium-specific authoring practices. Access constraints have left EQRH under-researched and threatened by obsolescence. To address this challenge, this study offers platform-specific analyses of all the EQRH's cross-media materials, including works that have hitherto escaped scholarly attention. It deploys a form of conceptually oral ethno-historiography: the lore of electronic literature. The Element deepens our understanding of the North American publishing industry's history and contributes to the overdue preservation of early digital writing. ER -