Hi,
Not an expert by far but have many editions from many years so and personal opinions to sink a barg: The "front pieces", which is to say the inside photo plates in the first and last pages show the sea chest beckets, refered to in chapter 41. They are in the 1944 and subsequent but seem to dropped off in about 19... did he say 85? in the UK edition but not until 93 in the USA edition. There is some intermediate USA edition which has the frontpieces but has shuffled the photo plates from one place to another. Some of the "eratta" which was corrected in the 1993 USA edition is either not errata or not worth the pen time. Arm chair quarterbacking is a very dangerous game. IGKT-PAB compiled a list of the eratta (errors in text) and before I could object and raise a fuss they found a second errata to confound me.
Buy the book you can find, you will never be sad.
Buy it damaged and weather beaten, you will always love it.
Buy it in all its forms, if you don't like it... sell it to me.
I bid on every one I find on Ebay. Don't want to bid against any IGKT reader so would "back off" if you Email me.. I am always "PABPRES" on ebay.
There is no "best of show" version of ABOK. It is a fault of the publishing industry that it is not a precise as engineering. You can not know what is missing from your edition... dumb publishers. If you get one ABOK without the endpieces: then I am sure some jerk
in some branch will make zeerocks copies of the endpieces to snail mail to you. Some limited copies of Knot News compilation of Knotting Matters eratta must have been stuffed in a mattress so zeerocks copies must exist
. I'd be happy to work with you if your book seems "odd' when you work with it. CWA documented many of the knots know to man. He hinted at expansion and revision (#2360 would make a good thump mat"... and then look at where HG Smith and Your's turly have taken that!). He was a tease and had an impressive sense of humor. He worked personal jokes and puns into the text. However He seldom offered "Knots with no known purpose". But he did make mistakes in text and crossed diagram lines or omitted them by mistake and I love to work on these. Not because I am equal or better but because I am an humble student.
Please note, since the publication dates in USA and UK are so confused, and since book sellers don't know this you will see many "first editions" offered. Don't even remotely think it to be true. I've got so many 1944 editions they are coming out my nose. A true "first edition, first publication" is hardly worth more than a current edition on Amazon or whatever. I missed an honest to golly autographed by CWA first ed, first pub, by less than I'd care to admit to but by far less than the current "over the counter retail USA" price. Dumb Roy. The 1944 was the first edition. The first publication was therefore 1944 first ed, first pub. I have only one first ed, first pub.
The publication page does not always list the publication date but this thing is in book publishing.... edition vs publication. Not verbage easily grasped by knotters.... or at least by me. Now all you book experts can come down on me and correct my stupid statements.. And I welcome that input becuase all I know is I've got 6 ABOKS on hand and have given away many, many more (or sold at cost or less than cost or donated.. and what I have expressed above is how it seems to me.. not a book guy, just a knot guy). Hey, by the by.. I've wanted a UK version and bid on every one but not yet won. I know they are not the USA Doubleday version. What are they like? They have a different dust cover. They often lack the frontpiece of the beckets. Maybe a holder of ABOK UK can update me via Email. I don't collect "The Book"... I am just a wee bit of a fanatic.
I would refer you to "ABOK- corrections" elswhere in this forum. I've not compared my eratta list but many of these are surely not in the original list but are correctly brought to task. Cheers.