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Ace Purchase of the North Pole

From: Brian Taves <btav~at~loc.gov>
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2000 18:27:28 -0500 (EST)
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~math.technion.ac.il>

Art--This 1950s Ace books you refer to were published prior to the Ace
editions of the Fitzroy series. These earlier Ace editions also included
a much abridged (and noted as such on the cover) Off on a Comet. Ace also
published a MASTER OF THE WORLD movie tie-in version of the two Robur
novels in 1961. All of this was before their involvement with I.O.
Evans.

Incidentally, I just noted that at least one of the volumes in the early
1950s Didier series are apparently taken from the Charles F. Horne
condensations.... sigh!

Brian Taves
110 D Street, S.E. #515
Washington, D.C. 20003-1815
202-675-4525 (h)
202-707-9930 (w)
202-707-2371 (work fax)
email: <btav~at~loc.gov>


Disclaimer--All opinions expressed are my own.

On Mon, 14 Feb 2000, Arthur B. Evans wrote:

> Norm,
>
> Unlike most, this Ace reprint is *not* from the Fitzroy Edition (trans. I.O.
> Evans). It is from the 1890 Ogilvie version originally published with the
> title _Topsy Turvy_.
>
> I don't have a copy of this particular translation, so I can't tell you how
> good or bad it is overall. But, reading through the opening chapter which
> you have scanned, it certainly leaves a lot to be desired.
>
> For example:
>
> p. 1: "Well then, according to your opinion, no woman seeing an apple fall
> could have discovered the law of universal gravitation, so that it would
> have made her the most illustrious scientific person of the seventeenth
> century?"
>
> Verne said: "Well then, according to you, Mr. Maston, no woman seeing an
> apple fall could have discovered the laws of universal gravitation as did
> that illustrious English scientist at the end of the seventeenth century?"
>
> p. 1: "No, Mrs. Scorbitt, and in the meanwhile I would like to prove to you
> that since there are inhabitants on earth, and consequently women, there has
> not one feminine brain been found yet to which we owe any discoveries like
> those of Aristotle, Euclid, Kepler, Laplace, etc."
> "Is this a reason? And does the past always prove the future?"
> "Well, a person who has done nothing in a thousand years, without a
> doubt, never will do anything."
>
> Verne said: "No, Mrs. Scorbitt. Nevertheless, I would point out to you that,
> from the time that people have inhabited the Earth, and therefore women,
> there has never yet been a feminine brain to which we owe a single discovery
> in the realm of science like those of Aristotle, of Euclid, of Kepler or of
> Laplace."
> "Is that a reason? Is the future irrevocably tied to the past?"
> "Hum! what has not occurred in thousands of years will never occur,
> without a doubt!"
>
> p. 2: For several years, it is true, the Conference at Berlin had formulated
> a special plan for the guidance of such of the great powers as might wish to
> appropriate rights under the claim of colonization or the opening of
> commercial markets. This code was not acceptable to all, and the Polar
> region had remained without inhabitants.
>
> Verne said: Some years ago, it is true, the Berlin Conference had formulated
> a special code to be used by the great Powers who might wish to appropriate
> for themselves the rights of others under the pretext of colonization or the
> opening of commercial markets. But this code did not seem applicable in this
> circumstance since the polar region was not inhabited.
>
> See what I mean?
>
> All best,
> Art
Received on Wed 16 Feb 2000 - 01:27:58 IST

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