The Printer's Kiss: The Life and Letters of a Civil War Newspaperman and His Family

Editing Notes

xxiii ChAPTer TWO } Editing Notes The publication of original letters always presents the challenge of whether to stay true to a letter writer’s variations in form, spelling, punc­ tuation, syntax, and paragraphing, or to do some careful editing with reader accessibility in mind. For the most part, i have attempted to follow the latter approach. salutations and closings, spelling, punctuation, syn­ tax, and paragraphing have been standardized to make the letters more reader friendly. By and large, the letters written byTomlinson are usually written in ink in a clear, legible script and need little editing; they could, in fact, serve as models of good writing. The letters written by eliza, on the other hand, are often written in pencil in a script that is frequently difficult to read and decipher. They often need extensive editing with re­ spect to the standardization of spelling, punctuation, and paragraphing. however, when variations from standardized usage do not significantly interrupt the flow, i have sometimes retained them, especially in the case of letters written by the Tomlinson children, Byers and Belle. Another problematic area for editing letters in this collection arose in conjunction with the use of the same name for multiple individuals and multiple names for one person. Child­naming traditions in the scotch­ irish and english borderer traditions, from which the Wylies and Tom­ linsons derived, can be confusing, to say the least. names were passed xxiv } editing notes down from generation to generation and also reused within the same generation of one nuclear family. Thus the name “William” was given to two of eliza’s younger brothers, one who died in infancy and another who died at the age of thirty­six in 1860. The name “William” was also, of course, the name of eliza’s husband, William Tomlinson, who went by Will, and their son, William Byers Tomlinson, who went by Byers. Besides being the name for Will and eliza’s son, “Byers” was the family of origin name for eliza’s mother, sarah, and the middle name for eliza’s brother, Thomas Byers Wylie, who also was called “Byers.”1 To help the reader sort through such convoluted onomastic practices, i have often prefaced individual names with a clarifying identifier. The name “Byers,” for example, is frequently accompanied by the apposi­ tive of “brother” or “son,” if not already specified by the letter writer. i have also tried to simplify another confusing practice of the Wylies and Tomlinsons by using only one first name for each individual, even when multiple names were often used for that particular person. For example, in the original versions of the letters, the Tomlinson’s surviving daughter, sarah isabella, is referred to by several nicknames, including sis, sissy, Lis, Lissy, Lissie, Lizzie, or Belle. To minimize confusion, i have consis­ tently referred to her throughout as Belle, the name she chose for herself in adulthood. some additional impediments to the modern reader that i have up­ dated, amended, or minimized include, but are not limited to, changing “&c” to “etc.”;slight revisions orcorrections to the text to avoid the use of [sic] whenever possible; and the addition of apostrophes in contractions. While i have spelled out many abbreviations, i have retained the use of “inst.” for “instant” or “instanter,” a convention used by letter writers of that time to indicate the current month in conjunction with the date of a previous letter. When the content of a letter would not be compromised, i usually deleted repetitious or distracting material. Finally, although the transcription of the letters has been conducted with care and dedication to accuracy, there is always the possibility for error in such a painstak­ ing process, especially when words or lines have been omitted, torn, or damaged in some way. For any errors in the transcription or editing of the letters in this publication, i assume complete responsibility. i also assume complete responsibility for any mistakes in the dating and placement of letters that have a partial date or, in a fewcases, no date. Most letters in the collection are fully dated, and my lengthy familiarity with the letter collection has been an advantage in dating letters that are editing notes } xxv not and placing them in their proper sequence. But usually the context of letters lacking complete dates can also be established by allusions to current events, community life (such as friends and neighbors who died), and family news...