Complete collection?

[Ningauble]

Originally Posted by j. d. worthington

Ning: Yes, even the older Beagle edition of Ward (from 1971) has that. That would be parts 2 and 3 of Chapter 2: "An Antecedent and a Horror", which reads: "By the autumn of 1770 Weeden decided that the time was...", which properly belongs only to section 3.

*sigh* I suspected as much. I think this phenomenon is called "encrustation", when a misprint is introduced in an early edition and then carried over to later editions. Hence my scepticism toward the Gollancz Necronomicon -- and that Centipede Press edition.

Same thing with Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter -- all modern editions have a serious misprint (part of sentence missing, replaced by part of another sentence from a couple of lines up) in Chapter XXI (IIRC). I've traced it as far back as the Ballantine edition (1969).

However, as I said, I have a strong sentimental attachment to these volumes, as they were (with the exception of the Arkham At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels, which I read during the same period) my introduction to HPL -- I also quite like the odd cover art ... and, I'll admit, I love the wonderful smell of those old paperbacks, which I've had for 35+ years now.....

Was it the Whelan covers as far back as that? If so, they definitely are very cool. And yes, old Ballantines have a wonderful smell.

[mogora]

JD, it appears to be the second volume of the series and will be presented in two volumes. It's a shame it's so expensive, though I'm still curious as to which texts they'll use.

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by Ningauble

*sigh* I suspected as much. I think this phenomenon is called "encrustation", when a misprint is introduced in an early edition and then carried over to later editions. Hence my scepticism toward the Gollancz Necronomicon -- and that Centipede Press edition.

This makes me think of a story I once came across concerning the "Masterworks" series by Bradbury. As the story goes, he was going over the stories preparatory to this, in order to have an authoritative text, and in looking over several of the paperback printings of his books, was driven to say "I didn't write that!" -- meaning, there had been so many mistakes, editorial alterations, and such, that the feel and sometimes the thrust of the story was seriously changed. Whether this is a true story or not, I don't know; but it wouldn't terribly surprise me....

Same thing with Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter -- all modern editions have a serious misprint (part of sentence missing, replaced by part of another sentence from a couple of lines up) in Chapter XXI (IIRC). I've traced it as far back as the Ballantine edition (1969).

That one is dismaying... especially that it hasn't been corrected in any edition so far, considering there have been a few....

Was it the Whelan covers as far back as that? If so, they definitely are very cool. And yes, old Ballantines have a wonderful smell.

No, the Whelan covers didn't come around until the 1980s, as I recall, when Ballantine reissued four of the Beagle/Ballantine books, along with the two that had been part of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series (edited by Lin Carter); and then the Best of volume (which dropped a fairly long passage from "The Colour out of Space", as I recall.....) Actually, I'm not sure who did the covers for the Beagle edition... but they vary. The ones I'm fondest of (as far as artwork is concerned) are the later volumes -- even those are not chiefly HPL; they include the 2-volume pb of Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, as well as the two Derleth collections, and The Lurker at the Threshold by Derleth -- the only true HPL in those later volumes is Ward, and a collection of nine of his revisions from The Horror in the Museum. The earlier volumes (which were by HPL), the artwork was rather forgettable. However, the artists are not given credit in the books or on the cover, nor does Joshi note who did them in his bibliography. If there is anyone out there who can provide the name for the artists of the Beagle books (matching artist by particular title) I'd appreciate it.

Later, most of these (except for The Mask of Cthulhu, The Trail of Cthulhu, Lurker, and Ward) were reissued by Ballantine with covers by John Holmes.

For a look at the covers I'm talking about, this link reproduces them, and asks the same question....

Cthulhu Mythos: Beagle Boxer Covers

[Dexter]

While I'm sure the original poster has already found a collection to read, I thought it might be useful to include a wonderful volume for people new to Lovecraft.

It is published by the Library of America and titled Tales.
$35.00 Hardcover (I found it online for around $24).
ISBN: 1-931082-72-3.
838 pages.
Includes the following 22 stories:
The Statement of Randolf Carter
The Outsider
The Music of Erich Zann
Herbert West - Reanimator
The Lurking Fear
The Rats in the Walls
The Shunned House
The Horror at Red Hook
He
Cool Air
The Call of Cthulhu
Pickman's Model
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
The Colour Out of Space
The Dunwich Horror
The Whisperer in Darkness
At the Mountains of Madness
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Dreams in the Witch House
The Thing on the Doorstep
The Shadow Out of Time
The Haunter of the Dark

The stories were picked by Peter Straub and edited by S.T. Joshi as a 'Best of' sort of collection.

Edit: Hitting spacebar can abruptly post the...um...post. Doh!

[Ningauble]

Yes, it is a decent volume, but textually speaking it introduces as many errors as the two Dell volumes.

[Dexter]

Textual errors? That's unfortunate, considering the efforts made to avoid them. Here are the sources. Additional corrections were supplied by S.T. Joshi.

21 of the stories come from:

The Dunwich Horror and Others, S.T. Joshie, ed. (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1984.) Corrected eleventh printing.

At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels, S.T. Joshi, ed. (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1985.) Corrected ninth printing.

Dagon and Other Macabre Tales, S.T. Joshi, ed. (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1986.) Corrected ninth printing.

"The Shadow Out of Time" is reprinted from
The Shadow Out of Time, S.T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, ed. (New York: Hippocampus Press, 2003.)

[j. d. worthington]

As I recall, the errors crept in because the text was reset, and when they do that, errors galore seem to creep in these days (for about the past 30 years or so....)

[Dexter]

Again I'll say it: Unfortunate. In this digital age, I'd think (or maybe just hope) that things could go more smoothly. Ah well.

For me, it hasn't been an issue yet. I've not read any of these stories elsewhere and nothing has scanned oddly. They are very good reads, in fact.

It would be nice to have the stories as originally written, but from what I understand he's been edited rather freely his entire career. Poor guy.

Does anyone know of a website where these kinds of errors are tracked?
(I'm guessing not, but I'm so hoping!)

[Ningauble]

Originally Posted by Dexter

Again I'll say it: Unfortunate. In this digital age, I'd think (or maybe just hope) that things could go more smoothly. Ah well.

For me, it hasn't been an issue yet. I've not read any of these stories elsewhere and nothing has scanned oddly. They are very good reads, in fact.

It would be nice to have the stories as originally written, but from what I understand he's been edited rather freely his entire career. Poor guy.

Tales is supposed to be based on the corrected texts, so in spite of the new errors, you won't see any of the old errors.

Does anyone know of a website where these kinds of errors are tracked?

No, sorry. I've made errata lists for the Penguin editions, or at least lists of every instance where the Penguin edition differs from the corrected Arkham House edition (some of these aren't errors but new corrections, I'm sure). However, Joshi hasn't yet had the time to look at them.

Anyway, that list would be very uncomplete when applied to Tales, since that book has the same errors as the Dell volumes (=the Penguin errors plus some more).

[Ningauble]

Originally Posted by Dexter

Textual errors? That's unfortunate, considering the efforts made to avoid them. Here are the sources. Additional corrections were supplied by S.T. Joshi.

21 of the stories come from:

The Dunwich Horror and Others, S.T. Joshie, ed. (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1984.) Corrected eleventh printing.

At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels, S.T. Joshi, ed. (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1985.) Corrected ninth printing.

Dagon and Other Macabre Tales, S.T. Joshi, ed. (Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1986.) Corrected ninth printing.

"The Shadow Out of Time" is reprinted from
The Shadow Out of Time, S.T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, ed. (New York: Hippocampus Press, 2003.)

Yeah, but that's what Library of America claims. However, the new errors that appear in the book are exactly the same as those in the two Dell volumes, The Annotated Lovecraft and More Annotated Lovecraft, e.g., "from wharves" instead of "from the wharves" on 128.13. I'd say the two have a source in common.

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by Dexter

Again I'll say it: Unfortunate. In this digital age, I'd think (or maybe just hope) that things could go more smoothly. Ah well.

For me, it hasn't been an issue yet. I've not read any of these stories elsewhere and nothing has scanned oddly. They are very good reads, in fact.

It would be nice to have the stories as originally written, but from what I understand he's been edited rather freely his entire career. Poor guy.

Does anyone know of a website where these kinds of errors are tracked?
(I'm guessing not, but I'm so hoping!)

In this case, the "digital age" may be part of the problem, as proofreaders have become much more lax, the amount and time of book production being more complicated, etc. With fewer books, more literate editors, proofreaders, etc., and a longer time to actually go through the (multiple sets of) galleys, there tend to be less errors creeping in... especially as different sets of galleys tended to go to different proofreaders, so what one missed, another would probably catch. I don't believe that's the case, now, at least with many houses. And since you seldom have typesetting firms doing the work (including proofreading on their end, plus the writer, plus -- sometimes, at least, someone at the publishing company), you often have things going through multiple editions or printings before errors are caught.

[Dexter]

Hey, Ningauble, you know what? I read that story and never noticed it, but you're right. Maybe I should be a proofreader, eh j.d.?

Thanks for the heads-up. It's a sad state of affairs, that's for sure.

Anyone have a "the" they can spare?

[Nesacat]

Errors aside, I think the Library of America is a very important addition to the body of the Old Gent's work. It's recognition well deserved and long overdue.

It is sad that there are grammatical errors and typos that really ought not to be there, but that should not diminish the importance of the book itself or put people off from getting to know Lovecraft and his work.

I am an editor and it irks me a great deal to find errors in books and as JD has said, the errors seem to be increasing of late. However, I am also always glad to at least be able to still obtain these books and read them at affordable prices.

[j. d. worthington]

I'll agree with Nesa on that one. It always irks me to find such errors... and I tend to be hyperaware of them. Nonetheless, the fact that Lovecraft has now been included in this series is a big step forward where recognition as a major American author is concerned, and should be recognized as such. Also, for those who are just making their acquaintance with Lovecraft... while textually precise editions would be much preferred, the ones I first read were often much, much worse (the Beagle Boxer editions of several, and the earlier Arkham edition of At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels), and nonetheless decidedly captured my imagination and made me realize that here was something very special; with the later editions Joshi edited, I found even more to like, as I began to appreciate just how precise and meticulous HPL was... but had it not been for those earlier editions, I doubt I'd have been inclined to pick up the later (though one can never be certain)... and this is a massive amount of his work in one volume; not really all that far off from the amount available in The Outsider and Others, which still remains a very notable collection....

[Ningauble]

Originally Posted by mogora

JD, it appears to be the second volume of the series and will be presented in two volumes. It's a shame it's so expensive, though I'm still curious as to which texts they'll use.

The page now indicates that it is the Joshi-edited texts that will be used. :-)