Publisher’s Weekly reported today:

E-book sales rose 167% in June, to $80.2 million, at the 15 houses that reported figures to AAP’s monthly sales report and closed the first half of the year with sales up 161%, to $473.8 million.

But the biggest news in e-book publishing is that the inventor of the e-book, Michael S. Hart, passed away this past week on September 6, 2011.

What follows is an excerpt from the obituary for Mr. Hart written by Dr. Gregory B. Newby for Project Gutenberg.

Michael Stern Hart was born in Tacoma, Washington on March 8, 1947. He died on September 6, 2011 in his home in Urbana, Illinois, at the age of 64. He is survived by his mother, Alice, and brother, Bennett. Michael was an Eagle Scout (Urbana Troop 6 and Explorer Post 12), and served in the Army in Korea during the Vietnam era.

Hart was best known for his 1971 invention of electronic books, or eBooks. He founded Project Gutenberg, which is recognized as one of the earliest and longest-lasting online literary projects. He often told this story of how he had the idea for eBooks. He had been granted access to significant computing power at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. On July 4, 1971, after being inspired by a free printed copy of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, he decided to type the text into a computer, and to transmit it to other users on the computer network. From this beginning, the digitization and distribution of literature was to be Hart’s life’s work, spanning over 40 years.

Hart was an ardent technologist and futurist. A lifetime tinkerer, he acquired hands-on expertise with the technologies of the day: radio, hi-fi stereo, video equipment, and of course computers. He constantly looked into the future, to anticipate technological advances. One of his favorite speculations was that someday, everyone would be able to have their own copy of the Project Gutenberg collection or whatever subset desired. This vision came true, thanks to the advent of large inexpensive computer disk drives, and to the ubiquity of portable mobile devices, such as cell phones.

Hart also predicted the enhancement of automatic translation, which would provide all of the world’s literature in over a hundred languages. While this goal has not yet been reached, by the time of his death Project Gutenberg hosted eBooks in 60 different languages, and was frequently highlighted as one of the best Internet-based resources.

A lifetime intellectual, Hart was inspired by his parents, both professors at the University of Illinois, to seek truth and to question authority. One of his favorite recent quotes, credited to George Bernard Shaw, is characteristic of his approach to life: “Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people.”

Michael prided himself on being unreasonable, and only in the later years of life did he mellow sufficiently to occasionally refrain from debate. Yet, his passion for life, and all the things in it, never abated.

Frugal to a fault, Michael glided through life with many possessions and friends, but very few expenses. He used home remedies rather than seeing doctors. He fixed his own house and car. He built many computers, stereos, and other gear, often from discarded components.

Michael S. Hart left a major mark on the world. The invention of eBooks was not simply a technological innovation or precursor to the modern information environment. A more correct understanding is that eBooks are an efficient and effective way of unlimited free distribution of literature. Access to eBooks can thus provide opportunity for increased literacy. Literacy, and the ideas contained in literature, creates opportunity.

In July 2011, Michael wrote these words, which summarize his goals and his lasting legacy: “One thing about eBooks that most people haven’t thought much is that eBooks are the very first thing that we’re all able to have as much as we want other than air. Think about that for a moment and you realize we are in the right job.”

He had this advice for those seeking to make literature available to all people, especially children: “Learning is its own reward. Nothing I can say is better than that.”

Michael is remembered as a dear friend, who sacrificed personal luxury to fight for literacy, and for preservation of public domain rights and resources, towards the greater good.

I remember back in the late 90s and early 2000s when Borders outperformed Barnes & Nobel (B&N) on sales per square foot on a per store basis. B&N is doing fine. Borders is tottering on the edge of bankruptcy. What in the world happened over the past decade?

Borders canceled today’s auction to keep a smaller but still significant retail concern going. (It’s hard to have an auction when there are no bidders.) That means the 399 stores on the “short list” for a leaner and meaner Borders will be liquidated. Landlords and other creditors first protested plans to save the company but are now protesting the plan to close the company’s doors, so there may be some death throes – but sadly, it looks like the end is here.

Company President Mike Edwards said “We were all working hard towards a different outcome, but the headwinds we have been facing for quite some time, including the rapidly changing book industry, eReader revolution, and turbulent economy, have brought us to where we are now.”

If B&N is doing great – or at least holding their own in the same turbulent conditions – what happened to Borders?

A few quick and far from authoritative conjectures on my part include:

1. inventory management – every retailer has to carefully management open-to-buy dollars and inventory turns (how often a particular item sells out and has to be re-ordered) but from the publisher side of the table I thought Borders got too tight on order policies and left money on the table. A lot of people who are smarter than me will disagree with this. But I’m simple-minded enough to believe that if your business is book sales, you better make sure you have books on hand. Manage, yes. But don’t squeeze the life out of your product.

2. too much emphasis on “new” – publishers and book retailers have to (and love to) create new titles, but the most successful companies don’t forget about previous successes and find new ways to promote and re-introduce perennial sellers. This is the biggest advantage Amazon has – a catalog of 8 million titles, many nearly forgotten. B&N has had a much more robust in-house publishing program built around classics – and carried both more front and backlist titles per store. Even signage has indicated Border’s over emphasis on the new. I once spent a couple hours studying the signs the chain had placed in it’s “power corridor” in the front of their stores. Of 22 signs, 18 had the word “new” on it. I know “new” is a powerful word and I’m all for new titles. I LOVE new titles. I’m simply stating that in my opinion Borders didn’t emphasize backlist enough.

3. the electronic revolution – Amazon introduced the Kindle, Apple the iPad, and Barnes & Nobel the Nook. Borders did a great job with email specials and coupons (there’s that emphasis primarily on what’s new again) – but never established itself as a destination for online sales of physical books or electronic books.

4. coffee – I think Borders coffee is fine but their cafes have never seemed to pack the punch of the “Starbucks branding” that B&N built their cafes around. Many people still don’t know that the Barnes & Nobel Cafe is not a Starbucks!

It’s easy for me to throw out ideas while good friends and a valuable publishing partner has fought for its life. Anything I’ve noted is not intended to be a casting of the “first stone.” Retail in all categories is a tough and tumultuous world. Who knows what the future holds for Barnes & Nobel.

And bottom line, I feel rather sad about a world without Borders …