Theos-Talk Archives (November 2006 Message tt00840)

A TEST for Carlos:  "a typical typing and proofreading mistake: 
jumping over a word"????

Carlos,

In a previous posting, I pointed out that
in HPB's original 1889 edition of the VOICE one
finds the phrase:

"thin oblong squares" (Original edition, page vii)

Apparently the editor of the Theosophy Company's edition
had changed the wording to read:

"thin oblongs" (p. ii, see TC ed.)

You reply:

=============================================================
If what you say is right, it sounds like a typícal typing and 
proofreading mistake: jumping over a word.
=============================================================

POINT ONE:

Carlos, I find your comment:  "If what you say is right..."  somewhat
puzzling if not entertaining.

Are you meaning to say that you have not or for some reason cannot
verify whether what I say is right or wrong, true or false?

You simply have to pick up the TC edition of the VOICE and compare it 
with the original edition of the VOICE.  Now if you say that you 
don't have an original 1889 edition, then you must have the TUP 
edition or the Cleather/Peking edition.  Look in one of those 
editions.

Yes I am right and you could verify it in 5 minutes or less if you 
really wanted to.

POINT TWO:

Are you trying to tell Theos-Talk readers that many if not all of 
these 665 changes found by Dr. Stokes in the TC ed. of the VOICE 
are MERELY typing and proofreading mistakes, like the example in the 
first paragraph of "Isis"?

I assume a few could be but 665 mistakes????

But your "speculation" that they are mistakes (proofreading and 
typing, etc.) can probably be tested.

First of all, consider the following.

In a letter dated March 30, 1928 and signed by THE
THEOSOPHY COMPANY, an anonymous writer informed Dr.
H.N. Stokes

"... 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.]

Notice the anonymous writer's words:  "set up *verbatim et literatim*"

So I ask you Carlos, are those "mistakes" that you freely SPECULATE 
about ... ARE THEY REALLY proofreading and typing mistakes, etc.,
or are they actually something else... like "corrections"?

You seem to rely a great deal on MERE SPECULATION .... possibly this, 
possibly that...but you seem not to be too concerned about trying to 
find evidence that either verifies or falsifies your speculation.

So I ask you to contact your good friend Jerome Wheeler and see if he 
will give you more information about the copy with 
Judge's "corrections". If he is no longer at the ULT Los Angeles, 
then contact some official there who can inspect this copy with 
Judge's corrections.

Then they (Jerome or the official) can tell you if the words "thin 
oblongs" is merely a proofreader's mistake by some poor ULT/TC worker 
or whether the phrase ACTUALLY APPEARS in this copy with corrections 
by W.Q.J.

Of course, there is more to this story, but I will leave it to 
another posting and let you in the meantime digest this one.

It will be interesting to see if you just brush this all off and 
ignore it or if you try to actually verify or falsify some of your 
speculating.

Daniel
http://hpb.cc