Quest of the Golden Ape Wrong Author [FIXED-ISH]

flavo5000 · Post by **flavo5000** » June 28th, 2023, 3:43 pm

Quest for the Golden Ape is currently attributed to the wrong author:
https://librivox.org/quest-of-the-golden-ape-by-randall-garrett/

It shows as by Randall Garrett but it's actually by Paul W. Fairman and Stephen Marlowe. Is this something that can be corrected?

Thanks

Post by **TriciaG** » June 28th, 2023, 5:34 pm

ISFDB has it as by Garrett:

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?Randall_Garrett

The Terror Out of Space / Quest of the Golden Ape (2011) with Milton Lesser and Dwight V. Swain [only as by Adam Chase and Ivar Jorgensen and Dwight V. Swain]

I'm guessing it was originally credited to Garrett on PG, then for some reason PG changed the author credit.

See also: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=quest+of+the+golden+ape&type=Fiction+Titles

flavo5000 · Post by **flavo5000** » June 29th, 2023, 2:46 pm

TriciaG wrote: ↑June 28th, 2023, 5:34 pm ISFDB has it as by Garrett:

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?Randall_Garrett
The Terror Out of Space / Quest of the Golden Ape (2011) with Milton Lesser and Dwight V. Swain [only as by Adam Chase and Ivar Jorgensen and Dwight V. Swain]
I'm guessing it was originally credited to Garrett on PG, then for some reason PG changed the author credit.

See also: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=quest+of+the+golden+ape&type=Fiction+Titles

Actually that Randall Garrett page on isfdb is referencing The Terror Out of Space (it's one of the Ace Double Novels).

If you look at the main page for Quest for the Golden Ape, you'll see isfdb referencing Fairman and Milton Lesser (a.k.a. Stephen Marlowe): https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?334837

flavo5000 · Post by **flavo5000** » June 29th, 2023, 2:57 pm

Doing a little more digging, it appears to be a little more confusing. Apparently Randall Garrett was indeed incorrectly credited to it in early sources since Ivan Jorgensen was a house name that both he and Paul W. Fairman used sometimes. But later the editor himself has said that the story was started by Fairman and finished by Marlowe. So I think the ISFDB Randall Garrett page just never got updated whenever the correction was made to the main Quest of the Golden Ape page.

Post by **annise** » June 29th, 2023, 3:41 pm

The whole authorship business of "house names" is a problem for us. Changing catalogued authors would mean that every file should have the author changed and the cover may need changing. And that the author may not match the author on any scanned text.
And really - if the writer was happy to have it published under whatever name that is OK surely

House names were just a way of tricking the buyers were they not?
Anne

flavo5000 · Post by **flavo5000** » June 29th, 2023, 3:45 pm

annise wrote: ↑June 29th, 2023, 3:41 pm The whole authorship business of "house names" is a problem for us. Changing catalogued authors would mean that every file should have the author changed and the cover may need changing. And that the author may not match the author on any scanned text.
And really - if the writer was happy to have it published under whatever name that is OK surely
House names were just a way of tricking the buyers were they not?
Anne

But it isn't published on Librivox under the house name of Ivan Jorgensen. It's published under an actively incorrect real author Randall Garrett.

Post by **TriciaG** » June 29th, 2023, 4:06 pm

The Gutenberg record must have changed since 2013. I don't think we would have cataloged it with a completely wrong name.

We could change it in the catalog and put a note on the catalog page and at Archive that it was originally credited as X author, but that the credit has now changed to Y author.

I don't think we want to go back and fix the audio intros and metadata.

Post by **annise** » June 29th, 2023, 4:16 pm

The reader is still active - let us ask him. Anne

sjmarky · Post by **sjmarky** » June 29th, 2023, 8:14 pm

Well, I don’t recall. I can’t believe I’d have just pulled Randall Garrett out of the blue. A lot of these old pulp sci-fi’s were published under pseudo’s, in this case there seem to be four different ones. If you do a Google search, it comes up under Randall Garrett on Amazon, but then in the description it’s Stephen Marlowe, so I’m even more baffled. There must have been some reliable source at the time that had the real author being Garrett. I bet Greg Weeks would know the answer.

sjmarky · Post by **sjmarky** » June 30th, 2023, 9:21 am

TriciaG wrote: ↑June 29th, 2023, 4:06 pm The Gutenberg record must have changed since 2013. I don't think we would have cataloged it with a completely wrong name.

Well, that's my guess. I looked at the page in Completed Projects and didn't see any reference or discussion about the author. The only link was to the PG text, so I didn't get it someplace else. Wikipedia shows Marlowe as the author.

We could change it in the catalog and put a note on the catalog page and at Archive that it was originally credited as X author, but that the credit has now changed to Y author.

I don't think we want to go back and fix the audio intros and metadata.

Agree. Plus the cover art (which sucks - my worst cover ever, but that's a separate issue). I have to believe it was done in good faith originally, and PG corrected it later. It does happen - I did a children's book during Covid that was listed in PG under JM Barrie, but it clearly wasn't.

Let's hope someone else records it again under the correct author.

Post by **TriciaG** » June 30th, 2023, 9:24 am

OK, I will work on changing it where I can, without touching the MP3s themselves.