Probably the best example I can think of is Diane Duane reworking her Wizards series to make it modern-day, but there are others, including owners of a literary estate altering books left to them to make them compatible with current standards.
What do you think? Does it matter if it’s the original author or an inheritor?
If it’s obviously marked as a different edition then that’s fine. My grandparents rewrote my great-grandfather’s entire book series to make it more modern since it’s mainly for kids and teens.
I think nobody should edit a book after it’s been published - neither the author nor the publisher or estate - except in a handful of very narrow cases:
-
In textbooks obviously to include new information, new research, update statistics etc. Absolutely doesn’t apply to prose.
-
Misspellings and grammatical errors
-
An extant manuscript or older unpublished version is found that clearly shows that the author (who is dead and can’t speak out on it anymore) intended something to be different, but it was misprinted, the author was browbeaten, talked out of it, censored, etc.
I’m absolutely against “updating” prose. I hate "X as a service"ification of things, I like to own books and movies and music, not have a subscription to them. This is that, but worse. And we all know authors (cough JKR cough) who would update their goddamn books every time they’re waiting on a dentist appointment or sitting in traffic.
-
Best examples I can think of are Stephen King’s The Gunslinger and The Stand. His George Lucasing killed the vibe in the Gunslinget to make it look like he had everything planned out ahead of time and the Stand was already too long but now it’s way too f**king long. The best part is how you cant get the originals in any modern edition, hooray