Afoot and light-hearted, I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose.
Walt Whitman, Song of the Open Road

We’re not sure if publishing superstar Jane Friedman chose Whitman’s hymn for the name of her company but we greet her on the launch of her e-book venture Open Road and hope the long path before her leads to fame and fortune.

Friedman announced her venture at Frankfurt Book Fair in mid-October. Backed by a $3 million investment by James A. Kohlberg, the company’s goal is to reissue in downloadable format major authors such as William Styron, Iris Murdoch and Pat Conroy.

As reported by Motoko Rich of the New York Times, “Ms. Friedman said Open Road would use a new proprietary online marketing platform to promote backlist titles on blogs, Twitter and social networking sites…
Open Road will also produce video content, including documentaries about the authors and scene setting about the books, which it will push to fan sites and other relevant Web sites.”

We welcome this latest wedding of literature and digital technology. As Whitman put it, “Allons! be not detain’d!”

Richard Curtis