Printing errors in Pharr book still?

Are you reading Homeric Greek? Whether you are a total beginner or an advanced Homerist, here you can meet kindred spirits. Besides Homer, use this board for all things early Greek poetry.
Post Reply
Polyidos
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 26
Joined: Sat Jun 24, 2006 7:43 pm
Location: Roswell, GA

Printing errors in Pharr book still?

Post by Polyidos »

I purchased a copy of the revised edition of Pharr's Homeric Greek shortly after the Univiversity of Oklahoma Press released it. The copyright year is given as 1985 so that must be close to when I bought it. (The price back then was $11.95) I didn't notice anything unusual until one day I tried to look up a word in the Greek - English vocabulary at the back of the book. I couldn't find it there so I rechecked the spelling, rechecked my recall of the alphabetic order, flipped through all pages of words beginning with kappa (that's the first letter of the my target word) and still could not find it.

Finally, I noticed something strange. The last word on page 330 is Κάλχᾱς and the first word on page 331 is κῆλον. That seemed like a rather large alphabetic gap. The page numbers are consecutive and I don't see any missing numbers anywhere in the book. (Note that the pages were renumbered from Pharr's original edition due to various edits - some deletions, some insertions - by John Wright.) Hmm.

A quick comparison against the original edition, as available here on Textkit, shows that an entire page of the vocabulary is missing from my copy. Page 360 in the original edition matches page 330 in my edtion while page 362 in the original matches page 331 in mine. Thus, my copy has omitted the contents of page 361 from the original edition! :(

So, I am wondering whether more recent printings have corrected this oversight or whether the error still remains. Anybody care to check their copy and report back? (caveat lector indeed!)

--- Πολύϊδος

edonnelly
Administrator
Posts: 989
Joined: Sun Jan 16, 2005 2:47 am
Location: Music City, USA
Contact:

Re: Printing errors in Pharr book still?

Post by edonnelly »

My copy is correct. It's copyright 1985 but is the 6th printing.

Bert
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 1889
Joined: Sat May 31, 2003 2:28 am
Location: Arthur Ontario Canada

Re: Printing errors in Pharr book still?

Post by Bert »

Mine is correct. copyright year 1985. Printing year 1988 (2nd printing)

Polyidos
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 26
Joined: Sat Jun 24, 2006 7:43 pm
Location: Roswell, GA

Re: Printing errors in Pharr book still?

Post by Polyidos »

I must have a copy from the first printing since it gives no indication of a printing number. It's good to know that they corrected their error.

I just noticed that in my copy the content of pages 331 and 332 are the same. They are recto and verso of a single leaf so to correct the error all they had to do is supply the correct contents for page 331. They rest of the book's layout remains the same.

As with software, so also with books -- sometimes it's best to avoid the 1.0 release :wink:

Thanks for checking your copies.

--- Πολύϊδος

jk0592
Textkit Member
Posts: 140
Joined: Sun Oct 08, 2006 3:20 am
Location: Montreal, Canada

Re: Printing errors in Pharr book still?

Post by jk0592 »

Polyidos wrote: A quick comparison against the original edition, as available here on Textkit, shows that an entire page...
If this can be of any consolation to you, note that the Textkit pdf is missing pages 134 and 135, as well as pages 182 and 183.
Jean K.

mingshey
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 1338
Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2003 6:38 am
Location: Seoul
Contact:

Re: Printing errors in Pharr book still?

Post by mingshey »

jk0592 wrote: If this can be of any consolation to you, note that the Textkit pdf is missing pages 134 and 135, as well as pages 182 and 183.
And then you can use Google pdf. :mrgreen:

jk0592
Textkit Member
Posts: 140
Joined: Sun Oct 08, 2006 3:20 am
Location: Montreal, Canada

Re: Printing errors in Pharr book still?

Post by jk0592 »

And then you can use Google pdf
The GoogleBook pdf is so much "heavier" than the Textkit version, and not of the same overall high quality as found in the Textkit version. The GoogleBooks version is not as convenient to use, navigating back and forth inside the document noticeably slow.

One could always insert in the Textkit version the missing pages from GoogleBooks, in order to have a complete book version. However the page formats do not seem to be the same, bringing a lack of uniformity in the document.
Jean K.

nov.ialiste
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 45
Joined: Thu Nov 08, 2007 1:56 pm

Re: Printing errors in Pharr book still?

Post by nov.ialiste »

How does the revised edition differ from the original?

annis
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 3399
Joined: Fri Jan 03, 2003 4:55 pm
Location: Madison, WI, USA
Contact:

Re: Printing errors in Pharr book still?

Post by annis »

nov.ialiste wrote:How does the revised edition differ from the original?
Mostly in the notes on the Homeric Text. Pharr was prone to some seriously tangential commentary. Wright trimmed away some of those, and in early chapters wrote headers explaining some grammatical material helpful to people who might not already have studied Latin.
William S. Annis — http://www.aoidoi.org/http://www.scholiastae.org/
τίς πατέρ' αἰνήσει εἰ μὴ κακοδαίμονες υἱοί;

Post Reply