26 Sep
2012
26 Sep
'12
5:35 p.m.
Why should PG nominate one particular instance of a text as THE canonical version? PG has no particular expertise in textual criticism or literary studies. Anyone seriously studying a text that had been published numerous times would be interested in knowing just how many times it had been published and what the differences between the editions might be. This might be trivial in the case of a 19th century text first published in the UK and then republished (sans permission) in the US; all we could learn is just how careful the US typesetters might have been. But if a book came out in several editions, with author input into the changes, then surely a good library would want ALL editions in e form, for easy comparison. -- Karen Lofstrom