Just found something odd when reading Fair Blows the Wind. Page 211 in the LT edition. Tatton is talking to Jacob Binns about investing in shipping.
"very well. Whom do I see?" He wrote a name on a slip of paper. "This woman." Then after a paragraph where Jacob tells how a woman is the owner of ships Tatton says this. "Her name?" "Delahay. Emma Delahay."
Why did he ask her name when Jacob had just given him a slip of paper with her name on it?
It's a screw up. I wish I'd known because I might have edited it out, certainly Dad's editor should have caught it ... but didn't. He had them a bit scared to touch his stuff because they had messed up a few times (doing what I would deem silly, as opposed to necessary, edits) and they were a bit gun shy to try to do too much.
These things happen. Just today I was working on a chapter that takes place in Venezuela in the 1960s and realized that in an earlier chapter I had called the Venezuelan Air Force the "Bolivarian Air Force" ... a name created by the Chavez regime because it sort of presets some sort of extra-national jurisdiction over (or with) other the nations liberated by Simon Bolivar in the 19th century. In the '60s it was just the Venezuelan Air Force. I had to zip back 10 chapters and fix it. Working without a word processor, and rarely researching in the middle of writing, Dad missed a few things. But that's what an editor is for.
Mistakes happen. It's surprising that it has gone on this long, but I guess they don't have any reason to go back and read a book that was edited 44 years ago. I've read this book before and don't remember noticing it myself. It is too bad though since this is a new edition. Can they not change it for later printings of the LT edition, or is that too much trouble? I've never heard the Bolivarian term, but I don't really know a whole lot about that area and it's history.
I used to tell them about stuff like this but I recently discovered it was being pretty much ignored ... or better said: lost in the cracks in the system. Basically, PRH won't record a change in the manuscript until just before they reprint, so I'd have to be ready on each at the moment it comes up.
So far I haven't had the time. Getting new work ready to go as taken precedence over what I have always thought was their responsibility.
Sounds frustrating, but I guess it's been there for 45 years, so a little longer won't make much difference. Hopefully it can get fixed eventually though.
It's always on my mind ... but so are too many other things! I suffer from not having multiple personality disorder. Just think of what I could get done!
Just a thought but LL may have had Jacob Binns saying that Emma Delahay is someone to contact about investing in shipping because she is also a shipowner herself. You wouldn't expect Jacob Binns to write her a name on a second piece of paper to answer a second question.
