Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

Hi,
I had to do some detective work but I think I've got it and hope you can help:
The whole issue is about the book "Myth of the Nation and Vision of Revolution" by Jacob L. Talmon.
The first edition was published in 1981 (UK edition ISBN-10 0436513994, US edition ISBN-10 0520044495, https://www.worldcat.org/title/myth-o...). This edition appears on Goodreads with a placeholder cover: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6.... Please note that the author is "Jacob Leib Talmon".

A new edition appeared in 1991 with an introduction by Irving Louis Horowitz (https://www.worldcat.org/title/myth-o...) and, as far as I understand was reprinted in 2017 (https://www.worldcat.org/title/myth-o...). Both versions appear to have the same cover, but for some unexplained reason both Worldcat and Amazon records of the 2017 edition/reprint cite Ignaz Goldziher as the first author and only then appears Jacob Talmon's name. That is strange since Goldziher died in 1921, 60 years before the first edition of the book was published. The "Look Inside" option of the 2017 edition on Amazon shows the first pages of the 1991 edition (it says so specifically). Since Goldziher is not mentioned in the 1991 edition and I can't see the details of the 2017 edition, I have no idea whether something Goldziher had written long before the book was published might have been added as a forward or supplementary material to the 2017 edition.
Here comes the Goodreads part:
On Goodreads there are 5 search records:
1. The 1981 original edition, under *Jacob Leib Talmon* (ISBN-10 0436513994) . The 1991 edition (ISBN-10 0887388442), which actually brings something new materially (an introduction by Horowitz) is merged into the this record. The 1981 has a placeholder image, the merged 1991 has a cover image but it doesn't affect the main 1981 record (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...).

2. A 2017 Kindle edition, ASIN B0761YZTCK, under *Ignaz Goldziher* ALONE, NO MENTION OF JACOB TALMON, with a cover image (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...)

3. A 2017 ebook edition, ISBN 1351503928, under *Ignaz Goldziher* ALONE, NO MENTION OF JACOB TALMON, with a placeholder cover (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...). This ISBN also appears in Worldcat without mentioning the real author, J. Talmon: https://www.worldcat.org/title/myth-o.... On Goodreads this record is merged with another edition, supposedly by Ignaz Goldziher (ISBN-10 1351503901, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...), BUT this ISBN appears in Worldcat as written by Talmon (!): https://www.worldcat.org/title/myth-o.... Both Worldcat records appear with the same cover image that is absent from both Goodreads editions.

4. A 2017 (the same as #2?) Kindle edition, ASIN B079LQPR6D, under *Jacob L. Talmon*, with a cover image (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...).

5. And, to complete the mess with poor Goldziher, the 5th record on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...) also has 2 merged editions: the main record (the link above) is an ebook, ISBN-10 135150391X with Goldziher as the SOLE AUTHOR and a placeholder image (compare with Worldcat: https://www.worldcat.org/title/myth-o..., where Talmon is the author), and the merged edition is the first appearance of the 2017 HARDCOVER (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...) with Goldziher as the 1st author and *Jacob L Talmon* (the real author) as the 2nd.

So, first, there's a problem that Talmon's name has at least 3 different versions on Goodreads (Jacob Leib Talmon, Jacob L. Talmon and Jacob L Talmon). That means that each version's link leads to a partial list of his books. The second problem, that I'm not sure Goodreads can fix if you extract the data directly from external sources without being able to change it manually, is that all the editions/records on Goodreads that cite Ignaz Goldziher as the *sole* author are erroneous and misleading (by no fault of Goodreads, of course, and yet...). The last problem is the merging of the 1st edition (1981) with the 1991 edition, which, as I said before, has a new introduction. If a new introduction is not a sufficient reason for a separate record, then I'd like to suggest to merge all the editions (1981, 1991 and 2017), since in 1991 Horowitz only contributed a new introduction, and in the 2017 edition Goldziher, who had been dead by then for almost a century, couldn't have contributed much more than that. Also, if you decide to merge all editions, could the cover image of the 1991/2017 edition appear in the main record/url on Goodreads?

And lastly I have another request: the first edition was translated to Hebrew in 1981 (https://www.worldcat.org/title/mitos-...). Is it possible to add this book to Goodreads, add the cover I've scanned (https://www.dropbox.com/s/l4l2tn9jaiq...) and merge it with the record of the 1981 English 1st edition (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...)?

Thank you and apologies for the convoluted story!

Hello Daria! I've tried to correct all the inexact information in each of the editions using Worldcat, the publisher's site (and their book preview feature) Amazon, AbeBooks and the covers. Please let me know if I've missed any edition!

It looks like Ignaz Goldziher was introduced by mistake, perhaps because Routledge was also publishing a book by him in 2017 (Muslim Studies) that also happened to be from Transaction Publishers' catalogue (merged with Routledge in 2016). When Amazon added the books to Goodreads they got added with the wrong author (but with the right information and cover).

I've left Jacob L. Talmon as main profile, as most of the books seem to have been published with that version of his name (and I couldn't find any book published with his full name), adding any existing variants when needed.

Other mistakes had been caused because in different entries in AbeBooks, Worldcat, etc. some of the editions published by Routledge in 2017 had been listed as "1991 Routledge" or "1991 Transaction", probably because the copyright page says:
"Originally published in 1981 by the University of California Press.
Published 1991 by Transaction Publishers.
Published 2017 by Routledge. (...)
New material this edition copyright 1991".

Many of the editions with that mistake in AbeBooks and Amazon also used the same generic "stock" cover image from 2017, so I wasn't able to add any cover to the 1991 Transaction edition.

Finally, I've added the Hebrew edition -> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5... but I'm missing the format. Is it hardcover or paperback?

(Ah, and remember that to avoid confusions we try to use "combine" when editions need to be linked and "merge" when a duplicate edition needs to be deleted).

THANK YOU!! Since it took me 5 hours just to compile the information and write my post, it will take me some hours to go through your corrections. I'll keep you posted.
It seems you've done even a deeper dig than I did (can't add an emoji so please imagine me clapping), and I really appreciate it. From your digging it seems that "complete mess" was an understatement and it was actually much worse than I thought...
Sorry for the mix-up with combine vs. merge, I wasn't aware there was a difference between the two.
As far as I'm concerned, your decision on "Jacob L." is just fine. The point was that all his books would be under the same name and thus searchable.
As for the Hebrew edition: it is a paperback (most books in Hebrew are, it's a small market, so there's no tradition of first-hardcover-then-paperback-for-the-masses since there are no masses). It has 2 volumes, was printed just once in 1981 and is already out of print (I managed to get a second hand copy). If you have any questions I can help with - I'll be happy to. Just in case, here's the link to the National Library's entry for the book: https://www.nli.org.il/he/books/NNL_A.... Maybe the automatic translation feature in the Chrome browser can help.
Again, huge thanks!

No problem! And I've added the missing info to the Hebrew edition from the National Library.