The trouble with Editing

Seth was a painstakingly patient researcher. He did not miss many details, noting subtleties such as whose property abutted whose and when people had more than one address etc. He was not quite so gifted as a writer. His questionable grammatical skills were even called out by his editor in an editorial after his death.

As the person responsible for editing the articles for presentation in the book, I have struggled with keeping his writing as true to his voice as possible and cleaning up the grammar, editorial quips and other issues which plagued his first book and the original articles. What I have tried to do is make these articles as readable as possible without intruding on his distinctive voice and narrative.

Those who attended his lectures, bicycle tours, walking tours or just sat around a campfire sharing stories, no doubt will recognize his inimitable syntax. Many people write the way they speak and Seth was one of those people. I have taken a certain amount of comfort in reading these articles and listening to the memories of his vocal exuberance. Every once in a while I can close my eyes and see his hands gesturing, fingers twisting in excitement.

The spelling I correct, some of the current details are no longer current and I'll deal with those as I must. These articles and books are a snapshot in time after all. But the voice will remain true.

c