From: "Ted White" <twhite8 at cox.net>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: An imaginary conversation in the backroomofabookstore . . . .
Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 17:57:31 -0500
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu>
To: <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2003 1:58 PM
Subject: [WSFA] Re: An imaginary conversation in the backroomofabookstore . . . .

> Sayeth Ted White:
>
> >I missed the discussion elsewhere, so....
> >
> >1.  Schmitz was a writer of commercial fiction.  Commercial fiction gets
> >edited.  I strongly suspect his stories were originally edited for their
> >magazine appearances.
>
> Mainly by that Campbell fellow. Of course one could go on at great length
=
> about JWCs editing . . .
>
> >2.  Schmitz was not an outstanding prose stylist.  He *needed* some
> >editing.
>
> And some of what Flint did is perfectly reasonable - such as reducing the
=
> number of exclamation marks.
>
> >
> >3.  That said, if the Baen editing was "extensive," how was it applied?
> >Were plots changed?  Were passages cut?  Were passages extensively
> >rewritten?   In other words, would a casual reader have noticed these
> >changes -- or would that reader have felt the editing was an
improvement?
>
> Rather than quote a very long message, this posting by Eric Flint is a =
> fairly good summary - in his own words - of what changes were made.
> Message ID: 20000420134004.15443.00002202 at ng-cl1.aol.com

I have no idea what that's a link to, but my computer can't find it.

> My objection is not so much as to what Flint & Co did - after all, it =
> seems the Estate was happy, well, probably happy to get the money - but =
> the fact that no reference to the changes were made anywhere in the books
=
> (and putting stuff online DOES NOT count).  Folks reading the books are =
> unaware of the changes that Flint made to the story "Poltergeist".
>
> Delany almost always make changes with each new edition of his novels - =
> look at the copyright page of any recent edition of Dhalgren or Nova, etc
=
> etc.  Ellison is always making changes in each new reprinting of his =
> collecitons - but he's so up front about it, as only Harlan can be of =
> course.
>
> I realize these be high falutin' words, but it's the intellectual =
> dishonesty that I find sad.

In those terms I found Jim Baen "sad" for several decades, now.

--Ted White