At 7:55pm EST tonight, Shane and I reviewed the transciptions of the last diary pages assigned to our team for the second round of proofreading. Naomi and her editorial assistants finished their half of the diary before we did, so we are not victorious in that respect. But it feels like a victory nevertheless. 

What, you might ask, was the final word that we proofread? Actually, it was a bit of XML code: <gap reason="damage"/>.  Anyone who has encoded a manuscript in XML following TEI standards will probably appreciate the irony of that, as we did tonight! (Bascially, we can't make out the last word on the page because, over time, its edges have ripped and crumbled. So instead, using XML, we noted a gap due to damage.)

Truly, words cannot express our deep gratitude to the students, colleagues, funders, scholars, editors, fans, and friends who have sustained us through two years of work on this project. Our work is far from over -- Naomi and I are now selecting, correcting, editing, and annotating the text that will appear in the print edition, and also making corrections to the XML as needed in preparation for the digital edition containing 100% of the diary -- but this is definitely a landmark event. 

Many thanks to everyone who has taken an interest in Harry Watkins and his diary. We are deeply, deeply grateful. And Harry...well, we're pretty certain he would be grateful to you, too.

Please stay tuned!