Theos-Talk Archives (July 2006 Message tt00440)

WHO did the "silent editing" in 
Theosophy Company's VOICE OF THE SILENCE??

In a letter dated March 30, 1928 and signed by THE
THEOSOPHY COMPANY, an anonymous writer informed Dr.
H.N. Stokes, editor of "O.E. Library Critic":

"The Theosophy Company is just bringing out an
entirely new edition of *The Voice of the Silence.* .
. .. Sometime ago the Theosophy Company came into
possession of a copy of the original London edition of
*The Voice of the Silence* with the typographical
changes and corrections made by Mr. Judge in his own
hand, and it is this text which is followed in the
edition just being issued by the Theosophy Company. .
. ." [quoted in O.E. LIBRARY CRITIC, July 1928.]

In a follow-up letter dated May 1, 1928, THE THEOSOPHY
COMPANY again stated to Dr. Stokes the following:

"This new [TC 1928] edition . . . is set up *verbatim
et literatim* from a copy of the original edition of
*The Voice of the Silence* as corrected by Mr. Judge
in his own handwriting. This copy we have in our
possession. . . ." [quoted in O.E. LIBRARY CRITIC,
July 1928.]

But in Oct. 2003, further clarification as to the
person or persons responsible for the SILENT EDITING
came to light.

A well-known ULT associate wrote:

". . . both of those Stokes letters are MISTAKEN due 
to the ERRONEOUS info he received from Theosophy Company." 

"At the time (1928) John Garrigues [of ULT](whose handwritten note 
appears on the inside front cover) did NOT realize that CHANGES had 
ALREADY BEEN MADE in the edition Judge was marking up for
publication."  Caps added.

Also in the same month of Oct. 2003, another writer in 
communication with ULT also elaborated on THE EDITION
Judge marked up:

". . . Judge did NOT use HPB's ORIGINAL edition for
his own edition of the Voice, but used THE ALREADY DOCTORED 1892 
edition which was probably altererd [sic] by Mead and Besant. . . . 
this has been verified because that 1892 copy with Judge's 
handwriting is in LA Lodge [of the United Lodge of Theosophists]. 
. . . " caps added.

These findings are also confirmed in the pages of THE AQUARIAN 
THEOSOPHIST in an editorial note which reads:

"This [editorial] change [in THE VOICE concerning the "thin oblong
squares"] FIRST occurred in the 1892 edition of the
Voice issued by G.R.S. Mead and A. Besant. Hence it
appears that WQJ based his 1893 edition on the
Mead/Besant reprint rather than HPB's original. — EDS." Caps added. 
See <http://www.teosofia.com/Docs/vol-2-10.pdf> 
p. 2, footnote 1.] 

The bottomline is that some of the SILENT EDITING appearing
in the Theosophy Company's VOICE OF THE SILENCE was probably
done by G.R.S. Mead and even Annie Besant!!

Daniel
http://hpb.cc