i said:

well, i have scraped the p.g. default .txt files -- http://www.gutenberg.org/files/#####/#####.txt -- from #10000 up, and surprisingly _quickly_.

of course, the idea is to rework these e-texts into z.m.l. format. although i won't be able to get started on that for a few weeks, and it will probably take me about 6 months to finish them all, i did have a chance to do just a wee bit of experimentation... so, to see a review of the transformation of one such p.g. e-text:

http://snowy.arsc.alaska.edu/bowerbird/misc/screen1.html

-bowerbird