Talk:The Traveller in Black

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USA vs UK spelling[edit]

I noticed that the present article title has the UK spelling The Traveller in Black though the cover image shown is for the USA spelling The Traveler in Black.

Excluding mentions of the titles of specific editions the article used "traveller" three times and "traveler" twice. I updated the article to change the two usages of "traveler" to "traveller."

I believe we should use the UK spelling in the article's title and body text as its author, John Brunner, was a British writer who seems to have lived and worked in England his entire life. The most recent reprint, and thus most likely to be on a bookstore shelf, is the 2014 omnibus by Gollancz (UK).

An argument for the USA spelling is that the Ace Books edition came out first and there were no UK reprints for six years. WorldCat has 12 edition records^[1]

1971 Ace USA by 60 libraries. (the counts are by clicking the "Show libraries holding just this edition" link).
1971 Ace USA by 4 libraries.
1971 Ace USA by 1 library.
1971 Ace USA by 1 library.
1977 Ace USA by 2 libraries.
1979 Severn UK by 29 libraries.
1978 Magnum/Methuen UK by 12 libraries.
1978 Magnum/Methuen UK by 1 library.
1985 Magnum/Methuen UK by 1 library.
1985 Magnum/Methuen UK by 1 library.
1971 Magnum UK by 1 library. (date is in error)
N/A Unspecified unknown by 1 library.

WorldCat also has 3 records for John Brunner SF gateway omnibus which includes the U.K. spelling The Traveller in Black.^[2]

2014 Gollancz/Gateway UK by 10 libraries.
2014 Gollancz/Gateway UK by 2 libraries.
2014 Gollancz/Gateway UK by 1 library.

In summary, there are 68 library holdings for the USA editions, 45 library holdings for the UK editions, and another 13 for the UK omnibus meaning 68 USA vs 58 UK.

As the Ace edition was both the first and is the most common by far it makes sense that we are using it for the cover image for this article. The 1977 Severn House edition could also be used as it's the first (and only) hardcover edition.

While Brunner wrote at least two novels that are set in the USA the stories found in this collection are set in a fictional universe that does not resemble either the USA nor UK.

In terms of WP:COMMONNAME I'd say it's about even. --Marc Kupper|talk 20:05, 11 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]