← The work

Author-grounded conversational study tools

Reading Companions

Most annotation comes from a stranger. Reading Companions replaces that with the author. The companion sees the page the reader sees and talks it over in the voice that made it.

A live session. The reader and the presence talk over the same page.

What it is

Each companion is authored from the public-domain record, the works, letters, biographies, and the scholarship around them, prepared with university researchers and field experts. It turns reading from a passive act into a conversation.

No one is asked to believe the author has returned: the companion keeps a frank distance from the figure while holding the voice close to the work. A reader can speak with it aloud or keep the exchange to a written thread.

The current reader is browser-based and split-screen, with goal-based tone, repeat visits for web readers, and a memory-off kiosk mode for institutions. The first audiences are schools, libraries, and literary estates.

Put the author beside the reader.

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