FeatherBoa writes Michael Hart, founder and long the driving force behind the Project Gutenberg in 1971 and the inventor of the electronic book died at his home in Urbana Ill, September 6, 2011. Project Gutenberg is recognized as one of the first and longer-lasting online literary projects, gave birth to sister projects in Australia, Canada, Germany and other places to translate the literature of public domain and make it available via the Internet.