Martinus:
My apologies for the lack of clarity, which I can now see from hindsight. I would have been more specific had I not been working strictly from memory. Thanks to jdworth for providing the exact quotation from Joshi's edition.
jdworth:
Just to be clear, I am not anti-Joshi. Far from it. I have defended his Lovecraft biography against those who feel (wrongly) that it soft-pedals Lovecraft's racial views. I also strongly take Joshi's side with respect to his generally harsh but accurate assessment of August Derleth's role in publishing Lovecraft's writings. I am glad that Joshi has dedicated himself so indefatigably to weird fiction, and I have largely supported him, just as I support the amateur CAS scholars, in the way that counts: namely, with my wallet.
That said, wilum pugmire (inadvertently?) makes plain the problem with Joshi when he writes,
Quote:I am astonished at the work he has done in what seems so short a time.
So am I. To be blunt, Joshi's prolific output comes with a price; namely, often slipshod editing. "Fiascos" are in the eye of the beholder, I realize, but when there are an average of one hundred or so typographical errors and textual oddities per volume*, as is the case with the Joshi-edited Penguin Lovecraft editions, then that, to me, is a
prima facie example of a fiasco. Granted, Penguin, too, deserves much of the blame for this, but Joshi is the editor, and the buck stops with him.
So, while Joshi's efforts and intentions are to be commended, I also feel that he over-reaches his capabilities, and that he errs far too often, and far too sloppily. I hope that he has a long career ahead of him, but he needs to slow down and curtail his ambitions.
Semi-related aside: Who was it that claimed Joshi's Penguin edition of M.R. James to be the only annotated edition available? Penguin? So far as I know, the annotated Oxford World's Classics volume
Casting the Runes, edited by Michael Cox, was available at the time of the Penguin M.R. James edition.
*Credit again goes to Martinus for his outstanding errata lists.