Longest novel translated into emoji

Data engineer Fred Benenson (USA) set up a project to translate the 10,000 or so lines in the classic novel Moby-Dick, by American author Herman Melville, into the Japanese pictograms known as "emoji". With 206,052 words in the original book, this makes it the longest novel to receive a full emoji translation. The final book was completed in 2010 and titled Emoji Dick.

In his Kickstarter proposal, Benenson explained: “I’m interested in the phenomenon of how our language, communications and culture are influenced by digital technology. Emoji are either a low point or a high point in that story, so I felt I could confront a lot of our shared anxieties about the future of human expression by forcing a great work of literature through such a strange new filter.”

Thousands of people were contracted to translate one sentence of the book into emoji, with the best ones voted into place and compiled to create the final book.

In 2013, a copy of the novel was acquired by the US Library of Congress, making it the first emoji book to be added to the prestigious collection.