Talk:The Incomplete Enchanter

The Incomplete Enchanter vs. The Incompleat Enchanter

COPIED OVER FROM MY TALK PAGE I'd like to question your reasons for the renaming of the article. I have several bibliographic references that list the title as The Incomplete Enchanter (the Laughlin and Levack de Camp bibliography and Bleiler's Checklist of Fantastic Literature). My own paperback reprint as well as the two cover scans in the article seem to agree.--Rtrace 20:08, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Reasonable question. As I have always understood it, the "Incompleat" spelling was the original, in tribute to Isaak Walton's Compleat Angler; publishers seem to have felt a compulsion to "correct" it ever since, as the two cover scans testify. The correction to "Incompleat" appears in the errata for John Clute's 1993 SF encyclopedia, for example, which used the "Incomplete" spelling at first.--Orange Mike 21:52, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarification. I've got Clute's Fantasy Encylopedia, but not the SF one amd while it does mention The Incompleat Enchanter as a later variant title, it doesn't go into the deatail you mention. I'm going to paste this thread into the talk page lest others ask you the same question.--Rtrace 22:32, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Sorry, guys, Orange Mike is wrong on this one. The correct title for the 1941 collection (and later reprints) is The Incomplete Enchanter. "Incompleat" was never used for any Harold Shea story or book! The source of the confusion is the fact that the later omnibus of The Incomplete Enchanter and The Castle of Iron was called The Compleat Enchanter (this was the book that was named in tribute to Walton, Mike). And of course the even later omnibus that combined The Incomplete Enchanter, The Castle of Iron and Wall of Serpents was called The Complete Compleat Enchanter. The title of this article needs to be reverted. BPK 04:53, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

And now has been. BPK 05:17, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

I don't have a copy of Clute, but my guess is that Mike is remembering the 1979 edition of The Incompleat Enchanter, which I remember as well (though gods know where my copy might be now). My very faint memory is that this may have been a revised edition (i.e. it might have had an extra story or something). Amazon confirms both spellings. Avt tor 22:49, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

Quick check of Amazon didn't turn up any "Incompleat"s aside from user comments that appeared to be quoting the title from memory. I remain unconvinced that any of the books ever used "Incompleat" in their titles; I think people's minds are simply conflating the original "Incomplete" from the first volume with the later "Compleat" from the omnibuses. In any case, "The Incomplete Enchanter", which people keep trying to make "The Incompleat Enchanter", unquestionably used "Incomplete" in its first edition as well as all later editions I have been able to trace. BPK 05:33, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

Searching on Amazon for the title "The Incompleat Enchanter" shows http://www.amazon.com/Incompleat-Enchanter-Sprague-Fletcher-Pratt/dp/0722129300/ref=sr_1_1/102-6915786-4625704?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174348876&sr=8-1. Please don't assume I haven't done research. I did say "Amazon confirms both spellings", which is not a statement relying on memory. Avt tor 00:03, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

No cause to get flustered, Avt tor. I made no assumptions at all about your research; that I wasn't able to duplicate your search result is obviously a reflection on me, not you. If you'll look again at what I wrote you'll note that my statement related to my own attempt to confirm your finding. In what I uncovered, the only use of "Incompleat" was in user comments, not an actual title, and given that evidence I think my speculation on how they derived the word was a reasonable one. Your evidence, plainly, turns out to have been of a higher order.

That said, I must also say that your search result is interesting but not conclusive. The "Incompleat" Amazon entry may reflect an British edition that did indeed use that word in the title – or it may simply be a misentry by Amazon. No cover image is provided, nor any other clincher that would prove the case one way or the other. The most we can say from the entry is that one British edition from Sphere may have changed the title of the book from Incomplete to Incompleat. Against that we have all the other editions, including the original, that indisputably used Incomplete. The Sphere version, if it proves out, is merely what we refer to in the trade as a title variation. BPK 06:09, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

See this ISFDB listing which includes a cover image of the Sphere edition, showing the "Incompleat" title. 70.106.89.93 (talk) 16:05, 29 October 2009 (UTC)

Yep, the variant title edition definitely exists, then, but ... it's also definitely a variant title edition! The Incomplete Enchanter remains the correct title. BPK (talk) 17:24, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as stub, and the rating on other projects was brought up to Stub class. BetacommandBot 13:51, 9 November 2007 (UTC)