Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

H.A. Rey authored the original Curious George (and some other) books. When he died, the rights to produce a seemingly infinite number of other books based on the Curious George character transferred to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, resulting in such trademarked product lines as "Curious Baby". If you go to the HMH Curious Baby website, these books are listed as being "by" H.A. Rey, which of course they are not.

Sample product (soft baby book):


I personally find it an abomination that this endless franchise goes on and on under the name of H.A. Rey. I would like to see a policy where we actually confine an author's page to the books actually written by that author, and any book produced after the author's death that the author did not actually write, be put under a different heading and on a different author page.

Not disagreeing with you; but, what about authors who knew they were dying, wrote thorough outlines and entrusted someone to finish the series/franchise? Or whose widow/heir/literary-trust had an outline and author's notes that they entrusted to a new author to write?

Most recently in my own reading that would be the Wheel of Time series with the last three books written from author Robert Jordan's notes/outlines with the widow getting Brandon Sanderson to actually write the books.

I see your point and completely agree on "Curious Baby" franchise/series. I would not object on "Curious Baby" if "H.A. Rey" was credited as "series creator" vs. "primary author" -- but, unless a real author's name or series editor name appears somewhere in the copyright page or on publisher website -- who would you suggest crediting as author?

While I understand the outrage, what would we then do with "house name" authors? --- Franklin W. Dixon, Maxwell Grant, etc. It's easiest to list the "author" printed on the physical book as the author. Any explanation or controversy could be noted in the description.

I have less of a problem with an author who farms out the labor - I guess James Patterson does this, and there are entire YA franchises "written" by one author but actually produced by a stable of hired hands.

With the posthumous Curious George Books, the thing is, H.A. Rey isn't listed on the physical book as the author.

Here's an original Curious George book written by Rey. He is clearly the author, as indicated on this cover.



Here's one of the posthumous franchise books:


The language ("Margret and H.A. Rey's Curious George...") implies the character was created by the Reys, but it doesn't indicate the Reys wrote this book. There's obviously a ghostwriter, I'm guessing nameless.

Maybe the ghostwriter could be labeled Curious George Franchise?

Would anyone buy a CD labeled as by the Beatles, but all the songs were actually sung by someone else? And would anyone who bought what they thought was a Beatles album and then learned it was recorded instead by Joe Blow and The Suckers not take it back and raise hell at the store that sold it?

I agree with Lobstergirl - we strive for as accurate a database as possible, and it's not at all accurate to credit H.A. Rey as the author of a book he clearly didn't write.

I don't pretent to know the most efficient way of achieving it, but I believe there should be a distinction between books written by the author and a book or books where their name is used posthumously.

"Maybe the ghostwriter could be labeled Curious George Franchise?"

Similar to Walt Disney Company.

I was just about to post about a similar issue to this. My opinion, FWIW, is that it might be good to have the original author / creator (in this case H.A. Rey) as the author, and then the actual writer of the book credited as a ghostwriter. But I'm a newbie here, so I have no idea if this is doable.

Also: if you list another author as the ghostwriter for a book, will that book show up on their author profile?

H.A. Rey could be given an author role of "Creator". That's what's done for things like "Arthur C. Clarke's Venus Prime" series or when a novelist gets cover credit as a writer for a graphic novel adaptation of their prose book.

It's important though that if H.A. Rey is given the title "Creator" that he be second on the book, and the ghostwriter be first. Whatever name the franchise is given, the franchise needs to be listed first as the author of the books written by the franchise.

Sati Marie wrote: "Also: if you list another author as the ghostwriter for a book, will that book show up on their author profile?"

Yes. But whenever someone is not listed as the primary author, that particular book will not show up on the combine page (which librarians see).

Tricky issue. In the example given with H.A. Rey, I can see a reason to seperate since it's an issue of accuracy and fairness. But it would be difficult to implement an evenly fair system for something like this sitewide since ghostwriters come with different strings. (Such as ghostwriters where they are supposed to remain hidden, etc.)

Using Rey as Creator for these books and adding the "ghostwriter" as author certainly has precedent. It should probably be done this way, in my opinion. Don't ask (lol) but I had the Sweet Valley High series listings up and that is how they have it done, though the creator is listed first and the author second on those.

Skyla (Skoyklha) Happy Go Lucky and Lost in Books wrote: "VC Andrews hasn't written anything since 1986 when she died but she still has books being released."

Skyla,

There are plenty of authors who have books published posthumously. I'm not a VC Andrews reader so I have no idea, but some of those could have been written before her death. I'm guessing that most, if not all, were not written by her and my opinion is that I'd like the same level of separation with her stuff as with Curious George.

In the case of The Wheel of Time, I would list Jordan and Sanderson as co-authors, which is how it is done.

VC Andrews family wanted her stuff to keep being published when she died, so they hired a ghostwriter from her estate. She had a few outlines they went by at first, but none of the stuff under her name is anything she created in any form any more. Personally I'm doubting she would want her to stuff to keep being published, especially since I consider what's put out under her name pretty bad, but once you're dead you have little choice in the matter depending how the rights were set up.