Re: Elswyth Thane question

Sounds like contacting them and inquiring would be in-line.  Odd that 
they'd change the flavor in such a manner, unless its based upon a real 
family(s) who decided it best to change their image.  I wonder if a copy 
of the original might be available thru ABE or another used book 
service?  Or perhaps Gutenberg(sp).

sandik wrote:

> Forgive me if this is not the correct place to ask this question. 
> Many years ago I read through Elswyth Thane's historical novels (for
> those that haven't seen them, Thane wrote about an extended family in
> the US from just before the Revolution to mid- WWII).  I didn't ever
> own any -- the only copies I ever saw were originals in libraries.  A
> few nights ago, I ran across a copy of one of them at a used book
> store and bought it thinking it might be nice to re-read something
> from so long ago.  I read it through yesterday, and was dumbfounded to
> realize that it's been expurgated -- almost all the references to
> drinking have been altered or removed altogether.
>
> I'm at a loss to understand why -- none of the characters were
> alcoholics, there wasn't any alcohol abuse, there really wasn't much
> reference to it at all, but the characters mostly all drank socially,
> and several conversations that mentioned drinking, or took place while
> the characters were drinking are either gone, or modified (some in a
> rather clumsy fashion).
>
> I don't remember who the original publisher was (my local library has
> a copy from the Aeolian Press) but the copy I bought the other evening
> is from Hawthorne Press.  Mousing around in my local library database
> I found that they owned a couple other books by Thane brought out by
> Hawthorne, and one was marked "newly abridged" in the early 70's (most
> of these books were written in the 40's).  It doesn't say anything
> anywhere on the copy I bought about it being a subsequent edition or
> being abridged -- the title page, and indeed most of the pages seem to
> be an exact replica of the original printing (I remember the typeface)
> but it's a very clean copy for supposedly being printed in 1945.
>
> I know this might seem like nitpicking -- the story hasn't changed,
> and the characters are, for the most part, intact, but part of the
> author's description of them is missing, and I'm not sure for what
> reason.  The changes don't make the book appreciably shorter, they
> don't change what might be considered challenging language, they don't
> make it more "readable" for young audiences today -- they just take
> out the references to drinking.  It's a bit like the WCTU came through
> and tidied up.
>
> Is anyone familiar with Hawthorne Press, and if so, can you tell me if
> this is this something they do on a regular basis?  And is this a
> widespread practice?  I know that times and mores change, and that
> sometimes people choose to alter or edit older works to make them more
> palatable to contemporary audiences, but is this often done without
> attribution?  We may not approve of older practices, but if we keep
> weeding them out of literature, how will we know what they were?