pqr Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 Has anyone had the opportunity to compare the binding, fit etc of the PrestonSpeed (Green cloth bound) Hentys vs the Vision Forum (with various colored covers)? From the photographs it appears that the Vision Forum books are rather cheaply bound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted April 19, 2009 Share Posted April 19, 2009 Bumping this for you. I had to share that the hardback Henty I bought today had a name in beautiful script along with the date 1901! I paid $5.00 at a library book sale, and I'm pleased. And the binding has held up beautifully. Regards, Kareni Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pqr Posted April 19, 2009 Author Share Posted April 19, 2009 I too love the originals. The problem is that those in my collection are too fragile for study copies. We have a PrestonSpeed reprint and it is well bound and sturdy. Alas, it does not have the cover illustration or that "feel" that earlier publishers managed to give the books. I will probably end up with more of the PrestonSpeed editions, but was hoping that someone had a Vision Forum edition as they appear to be closer copies of the original. I just have serious concerns about how well they are bound and if the covers are cloth or paper bound. -Sincerely pqr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linda in NE Posted April 19, 2009 Share Posted April 19, 2009 I have purchased Hentys from both Robinson and directly from Preston Speed. I began my collection buying some gently used ones that I understood had been purchased by the original buyer from Vision Forum. The Vision Forum ones WERE Preston Speed hardcovers, at least at that time. I absolutely love their binding. Beautiful books, really. The Robinson ones are much more cheaply done and they look and feel it. I haven't had them long enough to tell, and generally we use our books very gently here at home, but I do not expect the Robinson ones to last as long as the ones printed by Preston Speed. Hope this helps. Linda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LNC Posted April 19, 2009 Share Posted April 19, 2009 (edited) I can't verify this, but I read somewhere online that the Vision Forum Hentys are now not Preston Speed, but another version. The Preston Speeds are lightly edited to eliminate racist passages. The ones Vision Forum are reproductions of the originals with that intact. I own dozens of 1rst edition Hentys. They were gifts from my sister studying in England. I also have about 10 Preston Speed reproductions to fill in my collection. My Preston Speeds aren't all green, they are also different shades of blue. Edited April 19, 2009 by LNC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pqr Posted April 25, 2009 Author Share Posted April 25, 2009 I can't verify this, but I read somewhere online that the Vision Forum Hentys are now not Preston Speed, but another version. The Preston Speeds are lightly edited to eliminate racist passages. The ones Vision Forum are reproductions of the originals with that intact. I own dozens of 1rst edition Hentys. They were gifts from my sister studying in England. I also have about 10 Preston Speed reproductions to fill in my collection. My Preston Speeds aren't all green, they are also different shades of blue. Thank you for that tidbit, I was unaware of any editing. As for the VF publications. What is the binding like? Regards pqr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 How can one possibly do enough "editing" to make these books "acceptable" given that G. A Hently's works are throughly steeped in white suprematism? You can excuse them as "relics of another time", but these works are flat-out racist. Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HollyinNNV Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 How can one possibly do enough "editing" to make these books "acceptable" given that G. A Hently's works are throughly steeped in white suprematism? You can excuse them as "relics of another time", but these works are flat-out racist. Bill Can you give specific examples? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pqr Posted April 25, 2009 Author Share Posted April 25, 2009 (edited) How can one possibly do enough "editing" to make these books "acceptable" given that G. A Hently's works are throughly steeped in white suprematism? You can excuse them as "relics of another time", but these works are flat-out racist. Bill Bill Given your comments I am assuming you do not read, or at least would not want your children being taught from, what you deem (though others may not)racist works. It would follow that you have similar opinions of sexist or misogynistic works. So just what do you read to your children, or let them read? The list must be very dull: No Shakespeare No Kipling No Twain No Churchill No Constitution No Bible No Koran No Longfellow No Conrad No Mitchell God forbid one read transcripts of the Lincoln – Douglas Debates No TinTin No Roosevelt No Stowe No Dickens No Homer How many hundred more must I add to the list? You even have to drop Maya Angelou Many of Henty’s works do not even mention minorities so it would seem that you are being a little overdramatic in your statement. I suppose you might be able to read Marx and Dick and Jane or perhaps Jennifer has Two Daddies Henty also praised those qualities of honour, courage, patriotism, chivalry, loyalty etc that one is less likely to find in Judy Blume or today’s drivel. You may find the books supremacist but as in so many of your comments you are either baiting the board or something else. I am still interested in the binding of the VF reprints as I intend that my children read them and do not buy Bill's assessment. -pqr Edited April 25, 2009 by pqr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle in MO Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 Agreeing wholeheartedly with pqr here: Shakespeare wrote The Merchant of Venice - anti-Semitic? Twain wrote Huckleberry Finn - racist, clearly Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote Little House in the Big Woods - there is a brief episode in which Laura gets switched by Pa for slapping her sister Mary Kipling - also a white supremacist The list goes on and on. Really, I think there are bigger fish to fry than G.A. Henty. :glare: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 Can you give specific examples? I was going to link though, or quote some samples from the Baldwin Project files, but they have disappeared from the site. There were there recently (unless I'm mad). Perhaps there were too many complaints. Don't get me wrong. I loved reading tales of "muscular imperialism" and romantic adventures of "brave soldiers" in exotic lands as much as any boy, but thank goodness I had the moral education to understand how wrong-headed and vile many of the underlying values of Victorian Imperialism are (and were). And I'm afraid the white suprematism and "Christian-warrriorism" in these works is being held up as a positive virtue in some corners. Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HollyinNNV Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 Bill, Labeling an author racist is a strong charge. Without conclusive evidence, it seems unfortunate to paint with such a broad brush. And maybe a definition of racism and white supremacy would help. We're quite far from the original topic. Holly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 Bill,Labeling an author racist is a strong charge. Without conclusive evidence, it seems unfortunate to paint with such a broad brush. And maybe a definition of racism and white supremacy would help. We're quite far from the original topic. Holly Only because it was most easily "searched", and not because there aren't dozens and dozens of other examples I could have provided were the Baldwin Project files available, her is an exapmple from Sheer Puck (speaking of Africans: They are just like children. They are always either laughing or quarrelling. They are good- natured and passionate, indolent, but will work hard for a time; clever up to a certain point, densely stupid beyond. The intelligence of an average negro is about equal to that of a European child of ten years old. A few, a very few, go beyond this, but these are exceptions, just as Shakespeare was an exception to the ordinary intellect of an Englishman. They are fluent talkers, but their ideas are borrowed. They are absolutely without originality, absolutely without inventive power. Living among white men, their imitative facilities enable them to attain a considerable amount of civilisation. Left alone to their own devices they retrograde into a state little above their native savagery. Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pqr Posted April 25, 2009 Author Share Posted April 25, 2009 (edited) Bill, Let me get this one straight. You spent numerous posts on the Moslem thread telling us how we must understand the time in which the Koran was written and realize that what the book appears to say is not what it means, that we must look beyond the words and realize the historical background. That we must make allowances and look at the greater picture. Needless to say for Henty you make no such allowance. (and I grant that the quote you pulled is extreme, but it was an opinion of the times. No one will defend it, but that does not mean that parents who let children read Henty are in some way advocating such opinions) Inconsistent? Claiming that a series of books is “steeped in white suprematism” is an indictment of all those parents who allow their children to read them. Claiming that “white suprematism and "Christian-warrriorism" in these works is being held up as a positive virtue in some corner”s is also insulting. pqr Edited April 25, 2009 by pqr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HollyinNNV Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 Only because it was most easily "searched", and not because there aren't dozens and dozens of other examples I could have provided were the Baldwin Project files available, her is an exapmple from Sheer Puck (speaking of Africans: Bill But, Bill, context is everything. I could provide you with horrible examples from Twain or Frederick Douglas! Without context we would consider them racist. Holly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laylamcb Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 But, Bill, context is everything. I could provide you with horrible examples from Twain or Frederick Douglas! Without context we would consider them racist. Holly :iagree: Exactly. In this particular case, this is a character in Henty's book speaking--not Henty himself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elaine Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 How can one possibly do enough "editing" to make these books "acceptable" given that G. A Hently's works are throughly steeped in white suprematism? You can excuse them as "relics of another time", but these works are flat-out racist. Bill Once again you have veered wildly off topic. Seriously, Bill, get over yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Wise Bauer Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 This is a topic worth discussing, but only if you can all do it without personal insults and inflammatory language. As usual. If someone would like to start a thread discussing how to address with children how a work "reflects its time," and which works are worth using/not worth using, go ahead. SWB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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