We've talked about the possibility of doing "about the
author" bio- notes (and/or introductory essays), and there
are two main reasons we haven't done it:
First, because you didn't see these things in the actual
books of the period, and as much as possible we want to
replicate the Thing As It Actually Existed rather than
producing a modern gloss on that thing. Yes, on the back
cover of some old Signet titles you'd sometimes see a bio
paragraph, but really never more than that (and usually not
even that much).
Second, because we often have a hard time finding enough
biographical information even to fill the brief bio-notes we
do post on our Web site. Sometimes there's a lot of info out
there -- Erle Stanley Gardner, Lawrence Block, Stephen King
-- but other times it's much harder to find information about
a particularly obscure author. And as noted in an earlier
message, we've got our hands plenty full just doing what
we're doing today -- anything that falls under the heading
"more work" has to be looked at, alas, with a very skeptical
eye.
But really it's the first reason that dominates. There are
plenty of places someone who is really interested can find
out more about the lives of these authors; for instance, they
can read RARA-AVIS if they care to. Meanwhile, we want to
keep our books as true to the look and contents of their
1950s counterparts as possible...
--Charles
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, DJ-Anonyme@... wrote:
>
> Charles wrote:
>
> "But in the meantime I'm always glad to field
suggestions (and in
fact
> have a stack of 50 or so books on my "to be read"
pile as a result
of
> suggestions that have filtered in over the past year
or so)."
>
> Not a suggestion about what to publish, but the one
thing I miss in
your
> books is a short "about the author." You make a big
deal on the
cover
> about the other books your authors have written, why
not an author's
> note? I'm not talking about introductory essays,
like early Black
> Lizard, just a brief bio.
>
> Still, that's a very minor quibble about a line
whose new books I
> automatically pick up (unless I already have a copy,
but have even
> picked up some of those for the covers).
>
> Mark
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 28 Apr 2006 EDT