Typos, Misprints and Grammar that make you pause, laugh/frown and reread

[M. Robert Gibson]

I've just read Andre Norton's Sorceress of the Witch World (Ace edition 1968) and came across a couple of examples

The first is a typo/misprint
"Her breasts were heavy and the nipples were painted yellow with petals radiating from them as if to stimulate flowers."
As this is a family-friendly forum I'll leave it there

The second is a bit of grammar I had to reread several times
"Placed on my two feet by his strength as if I had no will of my own, he gave me a push forward which would have sent me helplessly on into the wall had not the woman, with muscles to match his, not caught me by the shoulder."

It's the last part of the sentence that threw me. If we remove the clause we get
"...which would have sent me helplessly on into the wall had not the woman not caught me by the shoulder."
Surely that should be
"...had the woman not caught me by the shoulder."
or
"...had not the woman caught me by the shoulder."
Otherwise, doesn't it imply that by catching by the shoulder, the protagonist is sent helplessly into the wall?

Anybody have any other examples?

 

[tinkerdan]

First question:
Are these from paper editions or converted to E-book editions?

That second one is rather common.
Usually someone edits through and adds or tries to clarify something or both and when they read it back their minds eye edits out the extra not.
Often an author edit; post line editing.

 

[Danny McG]

Stimulate flowers eh?

* (I had an Ursa-type pun to go here but it's genuinely just vanished from my brain!)

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

Are these from paper editions or converted to E-book editions?

My examples were from the paperback

 

[Extollager]

From Narnia to a Space Odyssey, ed. Ryder Miller, is an exchange of letters between C. S. Lewis and Arthur C. Clarke, and reprints of some stories and essays, with some editorial matter. The publisher is ibooks.net, distributed (it says) by Simon and Schuster, (c) 2003.

The treatment of the Lewis letters is literally barbaric -- as if the language was only partially known to the transcriber. (The correct texts are available in the Collected Letters of CSL.) As I wrote in an essay for Portable Storage:

Lewis is misrepresented as referring to Olaf Stapledon’s Star Gazer (for Star Maker) and J. B. S. Haldane’s Rosetta Worlds (for Possible Worlds). Lewis writes to Clarke that he might show patience “at a pinch” if forced to listen to a dull speaker; but the editor has Lewis saying “at a kind.” In the same letter Lewis is represented as saying “convey my good wished.”

Worse follows, when a Lewis letter is represented as studded with non-words: “ayalthery,” “ploated,” neljiet.” The final Lewis letter represents Lewis as referring to H. G. Wells’s Bedford and Cavor as “Realfew & Cawan.” Moreover, the Lewis-Clarke letters account for only 16 pages, most of the rest being stories by Lewis and Clarke readily available elsewhere. The book would have been spendy at $21 even if it had been edited better.

 

[Extollager]

 

[KGeo777]

I am reading a Dover edition of HG Wells--it is from 1934 I think--and it had a couple of typos-a spelling error was one but I just came across another which surprised me because it is on a chapter page and should have been easy to spot.

Book 2
The Green Vapours
Chapter the First
Three paragraphs down it has the line:

A remote faint question, where I might be, driftedand vanished again in my mind.

 

[Extollager]

One of my stories was published years ago in a fanzine. The editor surprised me, when I saw it in print, having changed my dashes -- to ellipses ...

 

[Extollager]

The yearbook of Ashland (Oregon) Senior High School is, or at least used to be, called The Rogue, named from a notable nearby river. My copy is stored away now, but I believe that, one year, the title page was for The Rouge.

The Columbia Journalism Review used to have "The Back Page" feature with examples of (presumably unintentional) things culled from periodicals.

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

From Narnia to a Space Odyssey, ed. Ryder Miller, is an exchange of letters between C. S. Lewis and Arthur C. Clarke, and reprints of some stories and essays, with some editorial matter. The publisher is ibooks.net, distributed (it says) by Simon and Schuster, (c) 2003.

The treatment of the Lewis letters is literally barbaric -- as if the language was only partially known to the transcriber. (The correct texts are available in the Collected Letters of CSL.) As I wrote in an essay for Portable Storage:

Lewis is misrepresented as referring to Olaf Stapledon’s Star Gazer (for Star Maker) and J. B. S. Haldane’s Rosetta Worlds (for Possible Worlds). Lewis writes to Clarke that he might show patience “at a pinch” if forced to listen to a dull speaker; but the editor has Lewis saying “at a kind.” In the same letter Lewis is represented as saying “convey my good wished.”

Worse follows, when a Lewis letter is represented as studded with non-words: “ayalthery,” “ploated,” neljiet.” The final Lewis letter represents Lewis as referring to H. G. Wells’s Bedford and Cavor as “Realfew & Cawan.” Moreover, the Lewis-Clarke letters account for only 16 pages, most of the rest being stories by Lewis and Clarke readily available elsewhere. The book would have been spendy at $21 even if it had been edited better.

That's terrible all that. If one didn't know the original text, one would think Lewis was semi-literate (Well not really, but you get my drift )

 

[Danny McG]

Funderstorm!

 

[KiraAnn]

From Narnia to a Space Odyssey, ed. Ryder Miller, is an exchange of letters between C. S. Lewis and Arthur C. Clarke, and reprints of some stories and essays, with some editorial matter. The publisher is ibooks.net, distributed (it says) by Simon and Schuster, (c) 2003.

The treatment of the Lewis letters is literally barbaric -- as if the language was only partially known to the transcriber. (The correct texts are available in the Collected Letters of CSL.) As I wrote in an essay for Portable Storage:

Lewis is misrepresented as referring to Olaf Stapledon’s Star Gazer (for Star Maker) and J. B. S. Haldane’s Rosetta Worlds (for Possible Worlds). Lewis writes to Clarke that he might show patience “at a pinch” if forced to listen to a dull speaker; but the editor has Lewis saying “at a kind.” In the same letter Lewis is represented as saying “convey my good wished.”

Worse follows, when a Lewis letter is represented as studded with non-words: “ayalthery,” “ploated,” neljiet.” The final Lewis letter represents Lewis as referring to H. G. Wells’s Bedford and Cavor as “Realfew & Cawan.” Moreover, the Lewis-Clarke letters account for only 16 pages, most of the rest being stories by Lewis and Clarke readily available elsewhere. The book would have been spendy at $21 even if it had been edited better.

Why would the letters between Lewis and Clarke even be edited? Surely they should be presented as written.

Oh, I just now saw how those names came out. . No intended reference to the explorers.