[TML] Amber Zone: Wet Goods, Dry Goods

[shadow at shadowgard.com]

On 5 Nov 2007 at 13:50, Steve Burchett wrote:

> Well, I was ten years old the first time I read Moon is a Harsh Mistress, so
> I would say it had more influence over me than it would, say, now. :)
> 
> On 11/4/07, Jerry W Barrington <jursamaj at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
> > On 11/3/07 11:01 PM, Leonard Erickson wrote:
> >
> > > On 31 Oct 2007 at 6:19, Steve Burchett wrote:
> > >
> > >> Stranger in a Strange Land, though, is the best of the bunch.
> > >
> > > Which version?
> >
> > Hmm.  Mine says copyright 61, 1st ed 61, later eds 68 and 87.  I bought it
> > new in the past few months.  Do I assume it's the uncut?  How can I tell?

Heinlein's death voided some contracts that wouldn't allow changes to 
several of his books. Per his orders, Ginny had versions released 
that had text restored that Heinlein had been rather upset about the 
removal of.

In Stranger it's words here and there, with the occasional sentence 
and paragraph. The changes make a few thoings clearer.

With Red Planet, the changes are rather more noticeable (seems the 
the editor for that book was *very* anti-gun and didn't think it was 
right for people to revolt against even an unjust government).

And as for Puppet Masters, let's just say that a few sections were 
restored that weren't publishable back when it was originally 
published (for example, watching a TV program from inside the 
"infected" area after they gave up the pretense. It's the sort of 
thing some TV execs would love to show...)

So I'd guess that anything with copyrights after 88 is likely the 
revised version.

There was also an edition of Podkayne of Mars from Baen that had 
*both* endings. The original, and the one the editors made him change 
it to. In the original, Poddy *dies*.

Grumbles from the Grave has a *lot* of stuff about what the editors 
did to some of his stuff. Including (if I recall correctly) that 
original ending to Podkayne.

--
Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
shadow at shadowgard dot com