Stuart John Evison
Minstrel
This post is to show that editors have been winding authors up for at least 300 years. I have a reprint of the first edition(1726) of "Travels into several remote nations of the world in four parts by Lemuel Gulliver" , "Gulliver's Travels" to thee and me. There is a footnote at the beginning in "A letter from Captain Gulliver to his cousin Sympson."
"The publishers of this edition have thought it advisable to follow the text of the first edition, but the following note will be of interest:-
'That the original copy of these Travels was altered by the person through whose hands it was conveyed to the press is a fact; but the passages of which Mr Gulliver complains in this letter are to be found only in the first editions; ---------. There is, however, scarce one of these alterations in which he has not committed a blunder; though while he was busy in defacing the parts that were perfect, he suffered the accidental blemishes of others to remain.' "
This letter to Sympson was written tongue in cheek as part of the fantasy itself. However the point is that it is obvious here Swift is complaining about editors and the way their input in his own journey to get published has wound him up.
P.S. If Swift's manuscript was submitted to publishers today his archaic eighteenth century prose, which I find refreshingly different and long winded would be totally obliterated by an editor. What they would do to Shakespeare if he time traveled and submitted a new play today does not bear thinking about, though that idea itself might make a good novel.
Stu.E.
"The publishers of this edition have thought it advisable to follow the text of the first edition, but the following note will be of interest:-
'That the original copy of these Travels was altered by the person through whose hands it was conveyed to the press is a fact; but the passages of which Mr Gulliver complains in this letter are to be found only in the first editions; ---------. There is, however, scarce one of these alterations in which he has not committed a blunder; though while he was busy in defacing the parts that were perfect, he suffered the accidental blemishes of others to remain.' "
This letter to Sympson was written tongue in cheek as part of the fantasy itself. However the point is that it is obvious here Swift is complaining about editors and the way their input in his own journey to get published has wound him up.
P.S. If Swift's manuscript was submitted to publishers today his archaic eighteenth century prose, which I find refreshingly different and long winded would be totally obliterated by an editor. What they would do to Shakespeare if he time traveled and submitted a new play today does not bear thinking about, though that idea itself might make a good novel.
Stu.E.