Theos-Talk Archives (September 1998 Message tt00197)

Daniel:

>ATTENTION:  Dallas TenBroeck, Paul Bazzer, and Tony Maddock
>
>I believe each of you has stated recently that you use/prefer/recommend
>photographic facsimile editions of H P Blavatsky's original writings
>rather than later *edited* editions.  Is this true?
>
>Furthermore, would you also accept verbatim reproductions if facsimile
>editions are not available?
>
>And last but not least, what current editions of Blavatsky's books and
>writings do you recommend?  For each of the following titles, what
>edition/reprint (*now in print*) do you use/prefer/recommend?

One other item for your list of books. In 1972 I was in the British
Museum, and compared a page or two of the third edition of THE
MAHATMA LETTERS to the actual letters, and found a few words to be
different.

Should one study the letters from a photographic image of them,
showing the handwriting, position of words on the page, actual text
written without any editorial changes/corrections, etc.? For myself,
I'd prefer to work with something typeset for readability, with added
commentary and references, photographs, etc., as long as I could trust
the editor to be doing the expert work of an editor, and not trying
to be a writer and rewrite any of the materials.

Given computer technology, I'd expect it to be possible for there to
be a graphical/photographic edition of THE MAHATMA LETTERS, showing
the actual pages as one would read them in the British Museum. To be
100 percent safe about what I'd read, I might have to refer to that
version. But for purposes of study, in order to quickly learn the
materials with the least time taken away for extraneous distractions,
I'd want to study a well-edited version of the work from someone that
I respect both as an editor and as a theosophical scholar.

-- Eldon