| 10/19/1967 |
Sam Epstein |
Anne Hagan
(G&D) |
"I got a
long letter from that adult fan, Fred Woodworth,
whose first letter I sent to you. (I wish, by the way, that you'll send
the letter back to me when you've finished with it.) Woodworth offered to
make a list of errors and inconsistencies" -- "He sent the list
along last week, and what with typos and real errors, he filled two pages.
I find, for example, that Sandy is called John or something several times in one of the early
books."
|
| 1/24/2002 |
M&A Review
#36 |
Readers |
"In
personal conversations with Mr. Epstein, I
asked him outright about this matter, and while I did get a reply
indicating that they were all his books. I am forced to declare that
there seemed to be substantial evasiveness in his response. Without
wanting to attack or make harsh remarks about my late friend, I have to
say that he was sometimes not completely truthful about the history and
details of the creation of his books. For instance, I asked
him over 30 years ago about the two places in the early stories, Skeleton Island and Stone
Elephant, where Sandy is referred to as
"Jack".
Sam professed to be puzzled about it, and hedged that, yes he'd
"probably" intended to use the other name for the character, but
had "changed his mind." In the 1990's, however, he was
clear and definite on the point that he'd originally named both characters
differently, and it was an editor at Grosset & Dunlap who'd made the
switch to Ken Holt and Sandy Allen. The original of the pseudonym, "Bruce Campbell" which he likewise
couldn't remember years ago, became clear with the passage of time…."
|
