Editorial Changes in the Famous Five Series

[aminmec]

Anita , would'nt the 70s paperbacks include the Betty Maxey covers and the TV series covers ?
What about the imprints after the TV covers? Namely the red digit 5 covers and the one after that which was the large font -Famous five (which was the same font on the continuation books) .These both had inner Betty Maxey illustrations so I always thought the content would also have been same .

[Anita Bensoussane]

I'm afraid I don't know the details of all the alterations, Aminmec. My paperbacks are a mixture of Betty Maxey covers and 1970s TV series covers. I think both sorts probably have the same (very slightly revised) text, though I can't be sure. At some stage decimal currency was introduced, though that can't have happened prior to 1971 (and it's possible that it might not have happened until some time after the new currency came into being).

I've no idea about later printings, except that the text was extensively revised for the 1997 editions and quite gratingly modernised for the 2010 editions. At some point (I don't know when), the publishers went back to the 1997 text and that's still used today.

[Twinmum]

Can I also ask if the 1997 centenary editions actually do use (near enough) original text as claimed, or are they still very modern?

[pete9012S]

Which versions (if any) of the books do you currently own Twinmum?

Fiona's post on her blog may prove helpful:

I have a 1965 (17th impression) of Five on a Treasure Island, and a 1997 paperback edition (which happened to come with the 50s Children’s Film Foundation 1957 DVD), and I’m going to compare them a few chapters at a time to see just what changes have been made (or not been made as the case may be). It’s not an exhaustive list by any means as different editions by different publishers along the years may have had different alterations made but it will hopefully be interesting. As will reading two copies at the same time, I’m sure.

https://worldofblyton.com/2013/12/06/fi ... n-edition/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Anita Bensoussane]

Even though the 1997 editions retain the old-fashioned flavour of the stories, quite a lot of vocabulary has been altered (probably in an attempt to make the books more "accessible" for 1990s children, rather than with the specific aim of "modernising" the text).

The 2010 text really does sound incongruously modern, e.g. Julian et al call their mother "Mum" and the phrasing is generally snappier.

[pete9012S]

I'm sure we have an exhaustive thread on this one somewhere Anita - But where that is is a bit beyond me!

There's a bit more info here:

Looking for a good edition of the Famous Five

They will have a lot of updates, but you won't notice if you haven't read the originals! I know when I read the 'centenary' editions from 1997 the updates really annoyed me - such as 'travellers' instead of 'gypsies' etc.

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/for ... xt#p367200" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Thanks, Pete. I've now merged the current thread with two older ones. Anita.

[aminmec]

Twinmum, I believe the 97 centenary editions are more altered than the 70s ones .

[Twinmum]

Thank you everyone, you've all been really helpful.
Until one hour ago I owned none of the Famous Five's. I've won an auction on Ebay for On the Treasure Island which has writing in it from 1950 so I think I'm safe with that!

[aminmec]

Ive had a query in my mind on these lines regarding the reprints . Considering the Barney series , the first HC of Rockingdown mystery published was by Collins in 1955 .Once Armada started publishing them in paperback they did so continuously for quite some years. Until 1997 Colin's again published it in paperback .So is it likely that the 1997 print was the original text as it was Collins again and not Armada ?
( I understand Collins had further prints in 1956 and 1967 but I'd only like to consider that since Collins never came into picture all along once Armada started , could they have printed the original text once they came into the scene in 1997) .What are your thoughts ?

[Anita Bensoussane]

I believe Collins owned the Armada imprint, Aminmec. They bought it in about 1966.

[FiveFanDownunder]

Enjoying reading this thread. My 1970s FFs have always seemed true to the originals, but I am assuming too much ( as usual ) without reading a first edition! Certainly I remember Golliwogs, dolls, housekeeping, traditional gender roles, Nobby, screaming like a girl, opposed to yelling like a boy etc.

I’m off topic, but now halfway through The Island of Adventure, would similar updates have been made in this book or series, particularly to the description and depiction of Jo-Jo? The text I am reading would appear to be close to original in the acceptable usage of the time. Interested in others’ knowledge here ...

[Anita Bensoussane]

Macmillan publish the Adventure books and they haven't edited the original text as much as publishers of other series. However, Jo-Jo in The Island of Adventure has been whitened and renamed Joe, and some of the language used to describe Sam, another black character in The Mountain of Adventure, has been changed because the original words are considered much more offensive now than they were at the time of publication. There have been a few other alterations too, but only very minor ones as far as I can gather, e.g. rocks containing copper now being described as green rather than red.

[Fiona1986]

I've seen a couple of very recent editions of Mountain and was surprised to see that Sam is still "just a poor N-word" and so on. But these were digital editions of entirely dubious legality and so I wonder if the publication details were correct.

[Anita Bensoussane]

There's some discussion of the changes to The Mountain of Adventure in the following thread (starting on the first page). Sam the paratrooper is a black American in the latest printed editions. He no longer refers to himself as "poor nigger" and the word "negro" has also been removed. The alterations appear to have been made around 1988.

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/for ... ican#p6166" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Fiona1986]

Thanks, Anita.

The editions I read purported to be the 2007 Macmillan and the 2014 Macmillan, but clearly the text is from much earlier editions which is annoying as I chose these ones purely to check if they had made changes to Sam's speech, descriptions and so on.

Stef and I are writing what Bill got up to while the children were inside the mountain and in our haste had thought that David had run away from the wolves, quite forgetting the "Black, black, black," and I wasn't sure how to handle it when I went back to edit that in. In the end I decided to leave Sam as a black man and wrote that scene as:

"Wolves! Yes, wolves, howling in the night!" David insisted, nodding while keeping an eye on Mrs Evans and her floury hands. “And a face! In the tree!”

“It was probably one of the children in the tree, playing a game, look you” Mrs Evans said scornfully.

“No,” David said firmly. “Black face.”

Mr Evans asked him something in Welsh, which David answered. “Yes, he says the face was a black one, very dark.”

Bill sighed deeply. “I suppose that he has never met a black man, has he,” he said to Mr Evans.

Mr Evans shook his head emphatically. “No, nor have I, I have travelled to towns as much as fifty miles away, and I have never seen even one. Nor-”

Bill cut him off with an impatient gesture. “Never mind that. Likely some poor bloke has come here on his holidays with a couple of dogs, climbed a tree, and David's made an utter fool of himself running back here.”

Which I hope leaves the essence of the original book (we won't be repeating the "poor little n-word" dialogue, or referring to Sam as a Negro) while being slightly more modern and less potentially offensive. I would be interested in others' thoughts, though.