Earlier today I stopped at my local used paperback
>place and found a copy of John D's AREA OF
SUSPICION.
>Up top there's a brief blurb -- "Specially revised
by
>the author". Does anyone know anything about
this
>revision? Why it was revised? What the old one
was
>like? (According to the copyright page I have the
1961
>edition, but there's also an earlier 1954
copyright
>date? Was that the copyright of the earlier
edition?)
Doug, AREA OF SUSPICION was first published as a Dell PBO in
1954. The '61 edition was the first Fawcett printing, and
only the second printing of the book. I'm not familiar with
the particulars of this title, but JDM was an habitual
rewriter. He may have felt some references -- usually details
like prices, fashions, etc -- had grown dated and needed
changing. He took pride in not rewriting in such a way that
he appeared to be a better writer than he was when the work
was originally issued. (At least according to his intro to
THE GOOD OLD STUFF.) Presumably, he took the same care with
AOS. CAVEAT: The Dell edition was 254 pages, but all the
Fawcett editions were 207, so more rewriting than was
customary with JDM may have taken place. PB
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