CAMBRIDGE, Ont. — CAMBRIDGE, ONT. – Some people climb mountains because they are there.
The monumental task Hadley Burns set out for himself was just to see if he could.
“I hand wrote the Bible,” the 70-year-old said, by telephone from his home in Cambridge, Ont.
“I’m a book guy. I collect books, I read books, I buy books I sell books... anything and everything to do with books,” said the former Selma, N.S., resident. “If there is something that will make it unique, I want it. I’ve got books less than the size of my fingernail. I’ve got books that weigh 30 pounds.”
A trait that makes a book unique and desirable in his mind is if it is handwritten.
Burns tried unsuccessfully for 10 years to convince his wife to undertake the task until she finally put the question back to him.
“She has beautiful handwriting. She never said no, but it just wasn’t her idea,” he said. “About two years ago she said if you want it that bad why don’t you write it yourself? In a caring way but that’s what she said.”
So began a process to match the vision he had of what his handwritten endeavour should look like.
“The idea stuck with me though, and I started investigating things like paper, pens, how easy it would be to get them."
One experiment was with the paper.
"I wanted the paper to look old and weathered. I would take perfectly good paper and spray it with various liquids, vinegar, dish soap and many others, and let it dry. That didn't work so I sprayed some paper with the same liquids and baked them in the oven. The brownish stains were what I wanted but the process was too slow. I knew I would need a lot of paper.”
Eventually, Burns, ended up choosing a 24-lb., light, ivory-coloured parchment that felt slightly "sturdy," he said.
“It was not old looking or stained like I had wanted but when you held it up to the light you could see light and dark areas and it was exactly what I was hoping to see. It made me think it had been made by a process that was old. If I couldn't stain it, as long as it was made by an ‘old’ method, that was good enough for me.”
So, on Dec. 16, 2017, Burns began the process of handwriting the King James version of the Bible.
“The rest,” he said, “is history.”
Writing for at least several hours each day – sometimes beginning at 5 a.m. – over the span of 489 consecutive days, Burns completed his task on April 18 of this year.
The result is 35, spiral-bound volumes, each about two inches thick, totaling 8,200 pages, including 53 pictures.
“Although at first I resisted calling it this, I have decided to call it My Bible,” he said. “Some people may be offended by that but think about it for a minute. You didn't write it so it's not yours. Someone down the street didn't do it so it's not his or hers. I did it. It is My Bible and I am proud, very proud of having written this version.”
Burns acknowledges he did not write his Bible word-for-word from the King James version. Many of the “thine's” and “thou's” were eliminated, along with other words he felt were not integral to what he was doing.
“I do not feel guilty,” he said.
He also consulted other versions of the Bible when he encountered certain passages he did not fully understand.
Ultimately, Burns persevered and he's proud to boast about it.
“I wrote it because it was different, I would take some pride in having done it,” he said. “Did I do it to get in the paper? No but it sure is fun when it happens.”
As for what he ultimately plans to do with his Bible, Burns said he has no intention to sell it, although some day he may give it away.
Not just yet, though.
“For a couple of years I’m going to enjoy having it,” he said. “I’m going to enjoy having created it, decide down the road what to do with it.”
