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H-ASIA November 8, 2005 More on the responsibility of publishers and libraries in the classification of books (was 1421) ************************************************************************ From: Ryan Dunch <ryan.dunch@ualberta.ca> I have been struck in this discussion by the parallels to the case in the late 1990s of the supposed medieval manuscript by a Jewish sojourner in China in the late Song, published in 1997 as Jacob d'Ancona, "The City of Light," translated David Selbourne. You might recall the case: Dr. Selbourne claimed to have been allowed access to the manuscript on condition that he not make a copy and not reveal the identity of its owner. That meant that readers could only assess its reliability from the content as translated by Dr. Selbourne. A number of prominent historians expressed the view that it was probably not genuine based on its content. The firestorm over the veracity of the work almost caused the US publisher (Little Brown) to pull the plug, but they eventually brought it out without calling it history, I believe, but with the subtitle "An Authentic Traveller's Tale." The difference between this case and that of the 1421 book is that the doubts about the veracity of *The City of Light* rested on Dr. Selbourne's word that he had worked from a genuine medieval manuscript and translated it accurately, in the absence of supporting evidence. The Menzies book rests its claims on purported evidence that can be weighed and judged insufficient. Geoff Wade's question of subject headings and how they are assigned strikes me as vital to how "knowledge" is defined and categorized. Looking in WorldCat and the British Library, the subject headings generally assigned to *The City of Light* do not imply historical veracity. They are: China Description And Travel Jews Social Life And Customs Travel, Medieval Asia Description And Travel However, in the listings on "Books in Print," which now lists fifteen different English-language editions of the book, "history" subject heads seem to have reappeared for more recent editions. These are apparently assigned by the company that publishes the database (Bowker), however, so they may not be authoritative – I am unsure how to assess this. The key organization that assigns subject headings and digital codes for them appears to be BISAC, "Book Industry Standards and Communications." See <http://www.bisg.org/publications/bisac_subj_faq.html>http://www.bisg.org/publications/bisac_subj_faq.html. Anecdotally, when my book was published in 2001, I wanted subject headings that would put it into the DS 700s (Chinese history) range rather than BR 1200s (Christianity in China) where it ended up, but I was told that the subject headings were assigned by the Library of Congress, by formula, and could not be changed by the press, or not without delaying its publication significantly. I would welcome clarification/comment from any readers who work in publishing or cataloguing of books. Ryan Dunch University of Alberta Citation (to the first UK edition): D'Ancona, Jacob. *The City of Light: An Authentic Traveler's Tale,* translated and edited David Selbourne. London: Time Warner Books UK, October 1997. ISBN 0-316-63968-0 *********************************************************************** To post to H-ASIA simply send your message to: <H-ASIA@h-net.msu.edu> For holidays or short absences send post to: <listserv@h-net.msu.edu> with message: SET H-ASIA NOMAIL Upon return, send post with message SET H-ASIA MAIL H-ASIA WEB HOMEPAGE URL: http://h-net.msu.edu/~asia/
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