What was your favorite book as a kid? You could read it over and over and never get tired of it? As a young kid- The

[malthaussen]

169. Not just different writers, different editions...

... along about 1960, the publisher decided the original versions (most of which were written by Leslie MacFarlane) were too "dated" and decided to "upgrade" them. Literary quality took a quantum jump down, the books became, on average, around 30 pages shorter, and they threw in a couple of pictures instead of just having a frontispiece.

So, you lucked out if you were reading the editions from the '30s. I originally owned a mix of the old and the new, as the rewrites were ongoing when I was getting the books. The originals are just much better. Of course, after #38 it doesn't matter, since those ware all originally written in the "new" style. There are replica editions of the originals, finding them used is a much more expensive process than the nostalgia warrants.

HBs have since gone through many other evolutions, but I haven't looked at any of those. I presume the dumbing down process has continued apace.

-- Mal