The previous post, making dismissive noises against claims of another book's priority in the history of printing in British Columbia over Alfred Waddington's (him up above), sparked a rebuke from another of HM's friends & mentors, antiquarian bookseller Steve Lunsford. He writes:
"Cameron's Rules of Practice is a proper book, and was printed well before Fraser Mines Vindicated. It is an attractive folio, well printed by the Victoria Gazette. It can't be dismissed as some legislative rules.This is not a caveat or quibble. This is the truth. I have NO idea why the Fraser Mines myth survives - except only that Waddington really WANTED his pamphlet to be first, claimed it to be - then had to take it back in an erratum which acknowledges Cameron's precedence. He was pissed off, apparently, especially since Cameron was not widely liked (though neither was Waddington). And Fraser Mines is poorly printed on crap paper.
"Truth is truth. Tell it. No need to waffle on this one. People have been wrong for a long time; that doesn't make them right.
"So take it back."
Steve's been digging into this stuff for a few decades, so we'll take it back and not feed the mythology. But his comment about crap paper pertains to that original 1858 edition, not Bob's, which was printed on Hurlbut Cortlea antique paper.
A related mystery is how the topic of early printing in B.C. ever attracted Douglas McMurtrie's attention. We should print up a little correction to be inserted in copies of his little 1931 pamphlet on the topic.
David Clifford, whose prowess printing halftones was mentioned in the previous post, called to rubbish our efforts & tell us it's a waste of time and ink to print them on anything but coated stock. He's going to pull some proofs of the Albion block and show us how it's supposed to look. Stay tooned.
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