Need Quote: Help with Sirius's Motorcyle - More

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 92944

On 12 Mar 2004 at 7:35, justcarol67 wrote:
 
Shaun, what are the other numbers? 0 1 2 3 4/0 or something like that?
the smallest number is the year of publication, which ought to be 2000
based on what you've said.
 
I've just put up a scan of the publication page at 
http://www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/hpcrtm.gif
 
All I can say is that the trademark information indicates the 
edition must be from 2000 at the earliest - beyond that, I'm not 
sure. I think those numbers at the bottom relate to the printing 
from something I read years ago - but I don't know exactly how to 
read them.


Thanks, Shaun. Lovely scan! Unfortunately, there's no indication of
the printing date, but those other numbers indicate that yours is the
26th printing. And you do have the "I'll be giving Sirius his bike
back" reading, correct? If someone has an earlier printing of the same
edition with the other reading, I think we can safely deduce that the
change was made at JKR's request. An editor couldn't make a change in
the wording several years into the printing process.

(Just as an aside, the somewhat larger change involving the order of
the spells in "Priori Incantatem" in "Goblet of Fire" apparently
started a new round of printing. My Scholastic paperback, which has
the correction, was printed in 2002 (copyright 2000) yet it's a first
printing. The change to the chapter wasn't significant enough to make
it a new edition, but you can still tell from the publication data
that a change was made because the printings start over again with
"1." I don't see anything similar in the information I've read
regarding "Philosopher's Stone," but maybe British printing practices
differ from American ones and it's not possible to make a definitive
pronouncement from the printing history.)

But still, it seems safe  to conclude that yours is the corrected
version, that JKR herself made the correction (who else would have
chosen those words or thought it necessary), and that it was important
enough that she wanted it to go into the American edition, too. Or
have you arrived at a different conclusion?

Carol, who hopes we haven't gotten so bogged down in details that
we've forgotten the original point.