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Edgar Rice Burroughs, Why
Aug. 9th, 2026 07:34 pmToday in adventures in library cataloging: thanks to the big honkin' donations, we have big stacks of "replace battered old library paperback with shiny new hardback donation," and I decided to go through one of them. Early in the stack was Edgar Rice Burroughs's The Moon Men.
There was only one problem: the paperback and the hardback, though identically titled and authored, weren't the same book.
Oh, about 2/3rds of the Ace paperback Moon Men had the same chapter titles as the Canaveral hardback Moon Men, but completely arranged in different ways, and possibly massively different revisions. On top of that, the Canaveral version of Moon Men turned out to be IDENTICAL to the Moon Maid.
I know precious little about Burroughs. I threw up my hands, weeded Moon Maid because our copy was about a century old and looked it, made a note saying that the two Moon Men were probably different, maybe don't weed? And told the librarian mailing list hoping one of them are massive Burroughs fans and can help bail me out.
But it seems criminally unfair to not only have a book with multiple titles, but also ANOTHER book of the same title with DIFFERENT CONTENTS. That's even worse than Spider Robinson having two different collections named Melancholy Elephants!
EDIT: the sage librarian has returned from her month-plus-long sabbatical with the SCA and she apparently has her own copy of Moon Maid and wants to try and keep as many as possible. I will be happy to leave this disaster in her capable, more knowledgeable hands.
There was only one problem: the paperback and the hardback, though identically titled and authored, weren't the same book.
Oh, about 2/3rds of the Ace paperback Moon Men had the same chapter titles as the Canaveral hardback Moon Men, but completely arranged in different ways, and possibly massively different revisions. On top of that, the Canaveral version of Moon Men turned out to be IDENTICAL to the Moon Maid.
I know precious little about Burroughs. I threw up my hands, weeded Moon Maid because our copy was about a century old and looked it, made a note saying that the two Moon Men were probably different, maybe don't weed? And told the librarian mailing list hoping one of them are massive Burroughs fans and can help bail me out.
But it seems criminally unfair to not only have a book with multiple titles, but also ANOTHER book of the same title with DIFFERENT CONTENTS. That's even worse than Spider Robinson having two different collections named Melancholy Elephants!
EDIT: the sage librarian has returned from her month-plus-long sabbatical with the SCA and she apparently has her own copy of Moon Maid and wants to try and keep as many as possible. I will be happy to leave this disaster in her capable, more knowledgeable hands.
