Thanks, Jay. Good advice. Right now, I still can play the 1994 Sony CD of
the Haldeman diaries on my old desktop computer, which has a Windows 98 first
edition operating system. (I misidentified it as Win 98 SE in my earlier
posting.) That's the one I loaded my CD onto and have used since I got the
computer around 1997.
Maybe I'll print out copies of each of the Haldeman diary entries over time,
as long as the old desktop computer still is working. Talk about labor
intensive, I think it will be over between 1,000 and 2,000 pages! Before Steve
chimes in about hating paper, I'll quickly add that there is no copy and paste
feature available on the CD's display of the individual diary entries. You can't
highlight text, copy, paste nor can you export text. There are no right click
options. :-p If any of you have access to a university library, you might
see if they have the Haldeman Diaries CD and whether they can play it on any
existing equipment.
For it's time, it actually was a very nice CD. There were embedded links
that took you to photos of some of the events Bob Haldeman described in his diary
entries. And the CD also has clips of some of the old vintage film that Bob
shot. Its relative inaccessibility now shows what can happen to commercially
produced history products when technology changes. Something like this is a
one shot deal, the original electronic publisher isn't going to reissue it in a
new format.
I remember talking to Bob in the late 1980s about his plans to electronically
publish his diaries. It all sounded so futuristic to me at the time! Here's
what a reviewer in a history journal wrote back in 1994:
[BEGIN EXTRACT] "An even better sense of how CD-ROM can enhance a book can be
glimpsed in the 'complete multimedia edition' of The Haldeman Diaries: Inside
the Nixon White House, which was issued by Sony Imagesoft on CD-ROM
simultaneously with the publication of the print version—the first joint release of a
major book in both media.
Haldeman himself apparently came up with the idea of publishing his diaries
in CD-ROM after he saw Sony’s version of the Mayo Clinic Family Health Book.
When Sony executives asked: "What makes this a multimedia project?" Haldeman
told them "I’ve got twenty-seven hours of film."
The disk’s forty-five minutes of Haldeman’s "home movies" of everything from
Nixon dancing with Pat at Tricia’s wedding to Kissinger’s return from his
secret trip to China are the most delightful bonus that the CD-ROM offers over
the book. But there is also considerably more: the full 2,200 pages of the
diary (rather than the 1,000 pages in the print version); more than 700 photos
(from an inscribed Bebe Rebozo souffle recipe to a shot of Nixon chatting with
Debbie Reynolds after Sunday services); a complete presidential appointment
book; almost forty brief (and poorly recorded) audio clips of Haldeman’s recorded
dictation of sections of the diary; a 130-page letter that Haldeman wrote, but
never sent, to Watergate prosecutor James Neal, in which he disputes the
charges on which he was convicted, and biographical information on almost 900
different people mentioned in the diaries." [END EXTRACT]
BTW, I disagree with the reviewer that the diary entries are poorly recorded!
I listened to the original Haldeman recordings on audio cassettes around
1980-1981 as well as the CD clips in the mid-1990s and I thought they were good,
compared to some of the Nixon White House tapes!!
In closing, I'll just add that I liked the Bob Haldeman I met while I still
was a NARA employee during the 1980s. I really respected his courage, of all
the people in the Nixon administration, he was the least afraid of facing his
past and his role in American history. And he had served time in prison for
his role in Watergate. I exchanged some nice letters with his widow, Jo, after
his death late in 1993. She sent me a lovely photo of Bob with his
grandchildren.
Thanks again for the good advice, Jay!
Maarja
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