Author’s Mistakes

We really need to take a moment with this subject of authors mistakes. Is it really an issue of mistakes or new discoveries? Do we throw the baby out with the bath water?
What I really need to know is what is the magic number. All of my Steuben material is assembled in order and ready for a witch burning. You give me the number of mistakes an author is allowed and I promise I will strike the first flame.

If ya’all ain’t careful you wont have an author left! Every author has mistakes. Believe me I have the written list. Let’s take Ericson. He got Gold Ruby and Selenium Red reversed. The word that comes to mind is moron…..Why? He got Diatreta, Florentia and you name it right. Hundreds of things right for each mistake. Now it is gang up on Shuman day. Well tomorrow lets torch Marshall because he sent Celadon Green up the Nile without a paddle. This has got to stop!! Is the glass half empty or half full. Who is playing God saying after four mistakes your book has been reduced to opinion rather than record.
It is what it is. Right is right and wrong is wrong and that is assessed daily by the most current knowledge we have available. These authors deserve a word of praise. They had enough guts to step forward and base their reputation on their testimony so give them the respect they deserve. Where would you be without them?

Should we allow a mistake to knowingly exist? Never. We must search them out , identify them, and change them. If you want to call BS on a willow stick adding bubbles to a glass batch and removing faint iron green and manganese purple and have example I am with you 100% . You very well may know what you are talking about. Shame on them for telling us so. I just hope you stuck the stick in the pot at least one time before telling us. You know…just in case lost art might override science. Frankly, the only thing that matters to me is does it or doesn’t it. I can tell you which author got Smoke Crystal wrong, who got Persian Blue wrong and who got Nile Green wrong. They all made mistakes. And by all means I am all about fixing them. If we are going to throw out Ericson or Shuman out then lets treat all the authors the same.
I will not throw away the books no matter how many mistakes but will just continue to pencil in the corrections as I discover them like I always have done in every Steuben book I own.

Rande Bly