On May 24, 9:31 pm, Ferris92 wrote:

Is it common for books written in English to have an American edition
and a British edition in which there are differences in text besides
the idiosyncrasies in spelling?

I spoke with Rick Gekoski about this phenomenon a few years ago. His
recent collection of book-dealing tales was entitled TOLKIEN'S GOWN in
the Brit edition but NABOKOV'S BUTTERFLY in the U.S. edition. The
publisher told him that Americans wouldn't understand that the
reference was to Tolkien's academic gown and NOT to his dressing gown
or bathrobe (although, with Tolkien's popularity, why even that
mattered I don't know).

Rick said he hates the U.S. title--I think more on principle than
because it's a bad title, which it isn't. But it has led to the weird
circumstance where Amazon UK offers to sell you both editions as if
they were two different books:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1845292391


wklimon