So that ^%$hole terminology would then apply to both: the late John Houchins, who prepared an errata page after the first printing of his great 700 page tome on the LC Smith- or, more to my taste here, as I, along with about 90 others, starting with Terry Allen and ending with Lydia Zelaya page 3- who helped edit or supply photos, letters and scarce books about EMH-
I am referring to Silvio Calabi and his great book about Hemingway's guns- I have a copy personally inscribed to me- about 9 months after the gift of this great book, he sent out an errata letter- after the fact proof-reading--
As many of you numbnutz here doubt my veracity- here's proof- page 89, and I quote the original text- "Leicester wrote that his brother bought it in Paris, en route to east Africa, on 1933.
The errata letter corrected that to read-- in 1933. A very minor point, a tiny spec of sand in the vast Sahara, yes- as was the gentleman's keystroke error that sunk the Lusitania on May 1 1915 instead of the actual date of May 7 1915-
You wrote- "when I was an editor we called--- etc--" the operative word, to me here, is the PAST TENSE- was an editor- No doubt they fired your sad sorry ass because you were not concerned about GETTING IT RIGHT- AS were both Houchins and Calabi- and Hemingway, my favorite writer of all, in his early years in Paris with Hadley (even before Bumby), would sometimes work all day to get one complete sentence correct.His background as a newspaperman and the strict discipline enforced by Gertie Stein, Ezra Pound, Ford Maddox Ford and others was the key to his best writing years- 1926 to 1940-IMO anyway- after that, he became a sad rummy like his pal F. Scott Fitzgerald, who drank away what little talent he had and burned out in 1941-
I once asked Silvio, in an e-mail, if he ever went on line to any of the sites such as this, and he wrote me back and said NO- too Many A-holes who write postings just to thump their own chests, and way too many BS artists- I think he must have been referring, tacitly of course, to ex-editors like yourself who couldn't cut it in the extremely tough world of today's publishing market- what are you doing now, selling used cars?
Oh, you won't find either RWTF or Francis Morin listed in Silvio's credits on page 3-- at my request, I asked him NOT to name me-- I have never met him, nor most likely will never, but someone told him that I had a vast Hemingway library (true) and he initially asked me to help and edit another gun related article he was writing for another publication, that's how our "friendship" developed.
Was my "assistance" important??- I can't say, nor do I need to know. But I will always appreciate the fact that he took the time to correct the minute errors in dates or details that perhaps the average reader might not see- like a Haupbuchsenmacher at his bench in Suhl- with his files and magnifying glasses and vises- none of the "well, what the Hell, who will ever notice or care" approach, but the approach of a master craftsman who will only settle for it being right- the first time- or else it will be made right before it gets out the door-- The only way!!
Last edited by Run With The Fox; 01/03/12 08:50 PM.
