Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

I need help, sorry. I was checking some books and I found that there were, at least, three different Van Dine authors. I think I've merged all of them, and I've merged all the books I've been able. But I think it needs a deeper examination, that I'm not sure to be able to do.

I'm confused. What do you want to do...do you think there are more out there that should be merged, or did you merge more than you meant?

This book: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60...

Not written by van Dine. http://lccn.loc.gov/17013756
Also, the "real" author's name needs to be corrected.

Oops, that's a pseudonym. Not sure how/if to combine as one author.

I have 'corrected' some of the differences, there were indeed different forms of the same pseudonym (ex: S.S. Van Dine <-> Van Dine S.S., S. S. (Willard Huntington Wright) VAN DINE ...).

But I'm not sure if that was the real problem, but I don't see what it would be?

Another "problem" that I see is that when the books were rereleased in 2007(?) it shows that as the publication date (original pub date) not the real original publication date- 1930's.

And some of the Wright books like: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/73...

are only appearing under van Dine.

Misinforming a Nation needs to have Wright's name corrected. It's misspelled.

You mean Misinforming A Nation, and S.S. Van Dine is spelled wrongly? Or you mean Huntington Wr Willard Huntington Wright? I suppose we should delete this 'second' author because all of his work are named on this under his pseudonym.

There were different forms, I corrected some of them and, as Massimiliano says, he has corrected another. But I haven't expressed myself well, sorry: the problem is with the books. I don't know if all of them are yours, if the ISBN are right, some are in capital letters, with apostrophes... That's what I mean.

I've combined most works now with the proper book. But still I do not understand: do you mean that the problem is that you think certain titles are wrong? (or even some versions are false?)
If so, I think we can correct titles (capital letters should be 'corrected'), but this must be done carefully, since titles have the habit to exists in different versions (surely if you have many translations).

About possible false versions (or with wrong ISBN), I cannot help, since I don't know really a method how to find out which one are false (if they're).

Massimiliano wrote: "You mean Misinforming A Nation, and S.S. Van Dine is spelled wrongly? Or you mean Huntington Wr Willard Huntington Wright? I suppose we should delete this 'second' au..."

Yes, Huntington Wr Willard Huntington Wright is misspelled. I also noticed that on one of the Japanese translations of a book (one of the mysteries), Wright is listed as an author. I think that all of the mysteries are under van Dine and all of the other types of books are Wright.

Should we separate them? Or should we put them all under the pseudonym? (or under the real author?). Do you know he published the non-fiction works under his own name?
P.S.: This author seems indeed a mess, I found some more missspelled pseudonyms.

Also, do the ones like: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28... need to be corrected? Publication date 2007.

The books were originally published:
The Benson Murder Case: 1926 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10...
The Canary Murder Case: 1927 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10...

That one is a combination of two novels, so I don't know.

Any omnibus editions should not be combined with the originals.

Merge all the pseudonym variants together under one name, and merge all the 'real name' variants under one name.

Then you should put a link to the other name in the description on each author page.

Then, if you're feeling energetic, you can put the other author name in the secondary position on each book (or for at least one edition of each book), this way they will all show up on both profiles. So on the Van Dine books, put the Wright name in the secondary position, and on the Wright books, put the Van Dine name in the secondary position.

Whew? Are you tired yet?

To search for more 'kreativ' spellings of the names, the series 'add books' engine is great! Plus, as a bonus, you can create a series for the main character mystery series he has going...

Carolyn wrote: "Any omnibus editions should not be combined with the originals.

Merge all the pseudonym variants together under one name, and merge all the 'real name' variants under one name.

Then you shoul..."

What should be the originally published dates on the omnibus? The date of the omnibus or the date the works that compose the omnibus were published.

The date the omnibus was published.

I disagree. Then you get weird things like specific Shakespeare collections first published in 2005.

I vote for the date the last of the component works was published.

I have followed the advise of Carolyn, and it seems ok now. The only thing I left untouched were the original publication dates, due the disagreement about it here.