X

Words of a Man's Mouth spread across the Web

Elinor Mills Former Staff Writer
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service and the Associated Press.
See full bio
Elinor Mills

A Seattle Web entrepreneur was visiting a knickknack store in Hong Kong and came across an old leather-bound journal with photos of young men and writings in Chinese. It looked like a school yearbook from the 1940s. He bought it for a minimal sum, scanned the pages and posted them onto the Web, inviting people to comment on the images.

"Perhaps together we can discover (or perhaps imagine) the story behind the owner of this almost lost journal," wrote Hillel Cooperman, who created the Web site and is a founder of Web services company JacksonFish.com.

News of the Web site, Words of a Man's Mouth, spread fast, far and wide as visitors from around the globe have added new comments daily since the site went up in January. A few of the entries are in English, but most are in Chinese. Some people have translated some of the writings, many of which are done in beautiful calligraphy and are poems like this page.

The title of the Web site is from a Biblical proverb at the beginning of the book: "The words of a man's mouth are as deep waters, and the wellspring of wisdom as a flowing brook."

Cooperman says at least one of the men pictured in the journal has been identified by people posting comments, and others are on the trail for more information. What a novel way to share a piece of history with others and to possibly even uncover the mystery behind its origin.