the cost of coal
I was doing a bit of catch-up research on the Cooleys, so I stopped to read On the Way Home. I only have two published copies available at the moment (gingham paperback, first printing; and First Harper Trophy edition, 1976, hardback). Both have a typo in them that really jumped out at me this time.

August 21 - "...Coal is lying around on top of the ground and cropping out of every bank. At the coal mines, or coal banks as they call them, the coal is worth $5. a bushel." Compare this to something in the August 17 entry - "...There is a coal bank where men mine the coal and sell all they dig for $1.25 a ton."

I don't know about you, but if I had been the Wilders and Cooleys, I'd gone back to the $1.25/ton place and gone into the business of selling it for $5/bushel at Fort Scott!

Of course, the handwritten diary entry says that coal was 5 ¢ (cents) per bushel; Laura used the common symbol of a "c" with a "slash" through it, not the dollar sign. I could understand if the published text read $ .05 or something, but it's clearly five dollars and clearly a typo.

If anyone feels like checking different editions, I wish you'd let me know what yours say. I know that HarperCollins has corrected a few long-standing typos in the most recently published editions, but not all of them. That's the trouble with having a computer rather than an obsessed LIW purist doing your proof-reading for you. Btw, HC, I'm available, and I'll do it for free.
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:59 AM