Could someone fix this book?

[Angel]

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22...

Just looking at that entry makes my head hurt.

[Michael]

fixed, but I didn't merge it with the other editions.

[Rob]

I just merged it with the others, turns out there were about 3 out there unmerged, so I fixed those, too.

[Lawrence A]

I concur. Like you, I am becoming OCD-red in "fixing" such things as original publication dates. This is particularly problematic when the specific works were written in centuries like the 1500s or the 1700s. The initial publication dates for most of the great fiction, drama, poetry, and non-fiction from such eras (e.g., Shakespeare or J.J. Rousseau) are readily available from many credible sources, so it's frustrating to see that the original publication year for Hamlet is, say, 1977, or the original publication year for Emile is 1982. I suppose many readers [erroneously] believe that the "original publication year" refers to the year when the particular edition was published by a particular publishing house, but I'm fairly certain that what is meant is the year the work first appeared in general circulation.

[rivka, Former Librarian Moderator]

Actually, I don't think this one can be blamed on readers. The field in question seems to default to matching the publication year of the edition, until/unless changed manually.

[rivka, Former Librarian Moderator]

Oh, definitely. :D

[Otis]

Rivka is right, we default the original publication year to the edition's publication year, with the hope of having it corrected later, either by a better data source, or by a librarian.

[rivka, Former Librarian Moderator]

Is there any way to have it auto-correct to the earliest publication date of other editions it's grouped with?

[John]

My problem with that one has to do with audiobooks - I prefer the year-of-production for those.