Textual mistakes in THE FOUNTAINHEAD and ATLAS SHRUGGED

[ashley.parker.angel 0]

On February 1, 2004 I posted this on a few boards. I have no reason to think anything has been done about these problems. Anyone care to update?

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All who are interested in the textual integrity of Ayn Rand's work should note the following.

Between the time of the first edition of THE FOUNTAINHEAD and the 25th anniversary edition (hardcover), the text was reset and NOT PROOFREAD CAREFULLY ENOUGH. Some of the errors are quite serious, but they are not really typos and so are unlikely to be caught unless someone checks the later book against the earlier one, word by word. I only caught the ones listed at the end here because I had a good memory of how the original sounded, and several things seemed "off." (I should say that none of these differences between the 1943 and the 1968 version seem to be edits by Ayn Rand.) How many other mistakes would be caught by a meticulous comparison?

See the very end of this message for a list of the errors.

It is reasonable to assume that these errors will be carried forward into ALL FUTURE EDITIONS, since, due to modern electronic publishing, it is no longer necessary to reset text in order to change its format. (I would appreciate it if someone who has the latest versions of the paperback and hardback could confirm that the errors still stand. I'm pretty sure they do.)

I also wonder: Was ATLAS SHRUGGED ever reset? If so, how carefully was it proofread?

No one at ARI has replied to the following email, sent three times to various persons, which is why I have decided to "go public":

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I hope that you will pass this information along to whomever is responsible for preserving the textual integrity of Ayn Rand's THE FOUNTAINHEAD.

I have compiled a [...] list of typographical errors and missing words in the 25th anniversary edition of the novel. Reading that edition, several things did not seem right and so I checked them against the original edition of 1943. I'm pretty confident that none of them represent intentional changes between the two editions. I'm talking about missing punctuation, misspellings -- including of major characters' names -- plurals changed to singulars, and -- as I have said -- missing words.

Over time, an accumulation of such mistakes will inevitably lead to significant degradation of the text.

I wrote earlier about this, but did not receive any reply. I do not remember to whom I wrote, but if you will direct me to the appropriate person, I can send the list as an attachment.

... I only noticed these errors because I'm professional editor with a sharp eye, and because I had a good memory of certain passages from earlier editions; I wonder what a line-by-line comparison would have found. If an entire sentence, or even an entire paragraph, were missing, how many people would notice?

I would suggest that all new editions of Ayn Rand's works be spot-checked extremely carefully for signs of unannounced retyping. Formatters are supposed to tell you when they retype things, but from experience I know that they often do not. They are very confident of their own accuracy, or merely cannot be bothered.

Rodney Rawlings

416-960-0086

"Music, Melody, and Songs"

http://www3.sympatico.ca/rr.rawlings/home.frames.htm

Click to hear my RECONSTRUCTION ON GROUND ZERO:

http://www3.sympatico.ca/rr.rawlings/misc....Ground.Zero.mp3

Click to see my ANTHEM for concert band:

http://www3.sympatico.ca/rr.rawlings/misc/....nov30.2003.pdf

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ERRORS IN THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION OF AYN RAND'S THE FOUNTAINHEAD (FOUND BY COMPARING WITH THE 1943 EDITION)

(Page numbers of the errors refer to the 25th anniversary edition)

MISSING WORDS

Page 134, the 1968 edition says "Don't mind saying it," but page 126, first edition, of 1943, has "Don't mind my saying it."

Page 426: "the effort of himself" on line 2. 1943 edition has "the effort he demanded of himself" on page 438.

WRONG WORDS

Page 219, 13th line from the bottom, "never know to be like this" should be "never known to be like this."

Page 242, a bit below the middle of the page, "Does he listen if others discuss any ... idea with him?" Should read "ideas." See 1943 edition page 253.

Page 322, the middle of the page, "Then the pact if off?" instead of the word "if" should be the word "is."

Page 435, the line "of course he had" should read "of course she had." See 1943 edition page 448.

Page 451, the line "Was the building worth the statue?" should read "Was the building worthy of the statue?"

SPELLING MISTAKES

Page 118, the word "advance" is misspelled.

Page 119, a bit below the middle of the page: the sentence "His mouth remained open a little, in astonishment." The word "astonishment" is misspelled.

Page 157 just below the middle of the page, "But you can't sit still," the first word is mistakenly spelled as "Buy."

Page 173, first line of 4th paragraph. The word "elevator" is the misspelled.

Page 187, the last full paragraph, the name "Dominique" is misspelled twice, with a missing letter.

Page 226, 16th line from the bottom, "man who looked as if he could break through the steel plate" the word "could" is misspelled.

Page 243, second paragraph from the bottom, "the edge of her eyelid," the word "her" is misspelled.

Page 251, a bit below the middle of the page, the word "perspective" is misspelled.

Page 282, the paragraph that begins "Tea parties" -- in the sentence "I thought that was tops," the word "thought" is misspelled.

Page 318, just about that the middle of the page, the word "straight" is misspelled.

Page 331, first paragraph after section break, on the second line the word "originality" is misspelled.

Page 338, at the middle of the page, "Mallory saw Roark's hand begin to shake." The word "begin" is misspelled.

MINOR TYPOS

Page 193, there is a double space after the word "if."

Page 389, "Good morning, Peter" lacks a period at the end.

Page 473, on line 3, there's too much space before the word "like."

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The preservation of THE FOUNTAINHEAD as written is very important to me, and so I am going to send this to as many Objectivist message boards as I can find. SOLO is the first (even though I said in an earlier private email to SOLO that I would not post here any more).

Rodney Rawlings

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How are things now?

Rodney

[Betsy Speicher 0]

I also wonder: Was ATLAS SHRUGGED ever reset? If so, how carefully was it proofread?

It's worse than The Fountainhead. For a while Bob Stubblefied was accumulating a list of errors in Atlas which he turned over to ARI. I don't know if the corrections were in the new 2005 Centennial Editions, but I certainly hope so.

[ashley.parker.angel 0]

Thank you for that information.

By the way, there are typos in even in my own message! However, they are not substantive. I was relying on a voice recognition program, and I did not take the time to proofread my own message carefully enough.

I am less worried nowadays about textual corruption in Ayn Rand's works than I was in 2004. Although the errors may still be carried forward for years to come, there exists enough scholarly interest in Rand that eventually, I am sure, "definitive" editions will be published. Maybe even annotated ones like other classics, noting valid alternative readings where they exist.

Another person, one Dennis Lee Wilson, actually posted a list of errors in Atlas Shrugged shortly after I made my post on one of the boards. Here are links to archives that contain our conversation, which have a bit more information:

http://solohq.solopassion.com/Forum/GeneralForum/0102.shtml

http://groups.msn.com/DennisLeeWilson/leav...604001490178478

The two links have the same content, but I am presenting them both in case one of them goes dead, so that all of this information may be kept alive.

[ewv 0]

Rodney, we had a discussion of this here a few months ago. The worst "typo" I have found is described here and here.

I'm sure ARI is concerned over changes to Ayn Rand's writing, but Leonard Peikoff, not ARI, owns the copyrights and deals with the publishers. I suggest that you contact him directly at 'estate <AT> peikoff.com'; he may post a response in the Q&A section of his website http://peikoff.com.

[ashley.parker.angel 0]

Wow, those are bad! Thanks for the links. If my copies had had those errors in them, I think I would have noticed them.

Regarding this:

It is therefore critical, in my view, to maintain her works in their original state. In the case of "enti--": I consider a mistake like "entities" to be completely without excuse.

--I'm willing to bet that some dull editor thought this passage was a typo and silently corrected it!

[ewv 0]

Wow, those are bad! Thanks for the links. If my copies had had those errors in them, I think I would have noticed them.

I noticed the omission of the "only down to a certain point" passage because as a major Fountainhead classic it was one of the things I was looking forward to when I reread the novel last year. When I got to the end without encountering it I went back looking for it on Phil's CD and eventually discovered the garbled paragraphs as the location of the omission.

Even without a collapse of the world, this kind of mangling may be enough to justify saving her works on 'acid free paper around the world in caves'! -- I hope the copies saved are correct

[piz 0]

I took it upon myself to incorporate a correction for every error I could find in Atlas Shrugged in a Microsoft Word document. I completed the entire novel a few years ago, though with every re-reading I find something new to correct (almost entirely punctuation and typos at this point). I'm doing the same thing with The Fountainhead (and some other books that are important to me).* I have a copy of an extensive errata sheet (which if I recall correctly is the one mentioned by Betsy, created by Bob Stubblefield).

It's a shame more hasn't been done to maintain the integrity of these works.

*These versions are solely for my own personal use - they have never been and will never be distributed without permission from the copyright holder.

[ewv 0]

I took it upon myself to incorporate a correction for every error I could find in Atlas Shrugged in a Microsoft Word document. I completed the entire novel a few years ago, though with every re-reading I find something new to correct (almost entirely punctuation and typos at this point). I'm doing the same thing with The Fountainhead (and some other books that are important to me).* I have a copy of an extensive errata sheet (which if I recall correctly is the one mentioned by Betsy, created by Bob Stubblefield).

Apparently, there are so many sources of the manglings that the errata is different for different printings.

It's a shame more hasn't been done to maintain the integrity of these works.

Yes, but we don't know how much has been done, with or without resulting improvements. I can't image that Leonard Peikoff is ignoring this.

*These versions are solely for my own personal use - they have never been and will never be distributed without permission from the copyright holder.

I don't think there would be anything wrong with distributing an errata if you want to. It would be a form of scholarly work in its own right quoting mostly fragments of sentences with refences to the correct an incorrect printings. It's not something that anyone could use for any other purpose, substituting for the copyrighted books. As such its value is the result of your own effort. But I don't know what kind of permission might be legally required, especially to sell it, because of the extensive quotes. Or do you mean you have the whole books in Word with the corrections embedded? If so, you have a right to do that for your own personal use.

[piz 0]

*These versions are solely for my own personal use - they have never been and will never be distributed without permission from the copyright holder.

I don't think there would be anything wrong with distributing an errata if you want to. It would be a form of scholarly work in its own right quoting mostly fragments of sentences with refences to the correct an incorrect printings. It's not something that anyone could use for any other purpose, substituting for the copyrighted books. As such its value is the result of your own effort. But I don't know what kind of permission might be legally required, especially to sell it, because of the extensive quotes. Or do you mean you have the whole books in Word with the corrections embedded? If so, you have a right to do that for your own personal use.

Yep, I have the entire book in Word (AS - Fountainhead isn't finished yet), with all the corrections done, and of course I would never distribute that. The errata lists I have are all available elsewhere, so there would be no new information provided by supplying them again.

(A nice side benefit of having the books in Word is that I can put them on my PalmPilot and read them there whenever I have free time, and make corrections whenever I find them, instead of carrying the physical books around. I have enough to carry everywhere I go as it is. )

[ashley.parker.angel 0]

Yep, I have the entire book in Word (AS - Fountainhead isn't finished yet), with all the corrections done, ...

That strikes me as no good, since now someone will have to proofread your typing, or the OCR, in toto!

[piz 0]

Yep, I have the entire book in Word (AS - Fountainhead isn't finished yet), with all the corrections done, ...

That strikes me as no good, since now someone will have to proofread your typing, or the OCR, in toto!

Well, it was neither typed nor OCR'd, so the accuracy of the uncorrected version depends solely on the accuracy of the original electronic version, and I'll go so far as to say that my corrections introduced zero new errors (that is, what I added or changed is in perfect fidelity to the errata lists, though those may, of course, be inaccurate). Anyway, I'm the only one who has to proofread it, because I'm the only one who's ever going to see it (barring some legitimate offer to acquire it, though I'm not seeking one).

As I said, every time I read it I keep an eye out for errors, and by now (that is, after at least five readings) they're down to a handful of mistakes (perhaps less) in things like punctuation and spelling that came through from the original. I've never compared it to a first edition, so I can't say how accurate it is relative to that, but I have an excellent eye for detail, and a fantastic memory in regard to written works. For example, I once picked out a single, minor word difference in a newer edition of a book I hadn't read in over ten years (it was something like "which" being changed to "that" - a long time ago, but I'd spot it again if I were to run across it ). Also, if you quote me nearly any line from AS (and many other books) I can tell you with an extremely high likelihood of being correct where on the page (in my hardcopy at least) it's physically located. I've spotted differences as small as an extra or missing comma (and once spent way too much time determining that something was an ink smudge and not an extra comma ). So it's with not much humility that I say that this version of AS I've created is very, very good.

[ashley.parker.angel 0]

I'm curious: where did you get these original electronic versions?

[ewv 0]

I'm curious: where did you get these original electronic versions?

With his abilities one suspects that he memorized it on the first reading and internally transferred it to USB memory plugged into his ear.

[piz 0]

I'm curious: where did you get these original electronic versions?

With his abilities one suspects that he memorized it on the first reading and internally transferred it to USB memory plugged into his ear.

I stopped using USB a few years ago (and the plug is actually behind my ear). I'm now fully wireless.

(BTW, chicks dig the antenna...)

[ewv 0]

I'm curious: where did you get these original electronic versions?

With his abilities one suspects that he memorized it on the first reading and internally transferred it to USB memory plugged into his ear.

I stopped using USB a few years ago (and the plug is actually behind my ear). I'm now fully wireless.

(BTW, chicks dig the antenna...)

I hope you use encryption and a firewall.

[piz 0]

I hope you use encryption and a firewall.

There must at least be encryption in there (and some faulty processing) because, as my son likes to say, "Dad needs subtitles."

[Paul's Here 0]

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Also, if you quote me nearly any line from AS (and many other books) I can tell you with an extremely high likelihood of being correct where on the page (in my hardcopy at least) it's physically located.

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OK. Find this, with no looking.

"Who is John Galt?"

[piz 0]

OK. Find this, with no looking.

"Who is John Galt?"

Sorry, not familiar with that line.

[ashley.parker.angel 0]

First line in book.

[Paul's Here 0]

First line in book.

and....

[ashley.parker.angel 0]

First line in book.

and....

As the second line in every 3rd chapter, and in all the diagrams.