May 2011 Book Club Review #23 The Melted Coins (1944 & 1970)

[tomswift2002]

Here's the review for May 2011's book The Melted Coins. The Original Text was written by Leslie McFarlane and printed in 1944.  The Revised version was written by Andrew E. Svenson and printed in 1970.  According to Hardy and Hardy Investigations (by Tony Carpentieri and Paul Mular), instead of The Bombay Boomerang being issued as the "New" book in 1970, what became the Revised Text of The Melted Coins was going to be issued as The Iroquois Mystery.

Personally I consider the 1944 version to be far superior to the 1970 rewrite.

[MacGyver]

I'm only familiar with the revised version- I know you've talked some about both versions somewhere else before on here too. Is this one of the titles that's drastically different from the original to the revised version?
I will say that I enjoyed the revised one pretty well when I read it- but then, it's been quite a while since I read it. I always liked the British cover for The Melted Coins too. (or The Mystery of the Melted Coins as it was retitled there later.)

[SDLagent]

Yeah, I like the original text of The Melted Coins better. In fact, it's one of my favourite Hardy Boys books.

[SDLagent]

I'm only familiar with the revised version- I know you've talked some about both versions somewhere else before on here too. Is this one of the titles that's drastically different from the original to the revised version?
I will say that I enjoyed the revised one pretty well when I read it- but then, it's been quite a while since I read it. I always liked the British cover for The Melted Coins too. (or The Mystery of the Melted Coins as it was retitled there later.)

Yeah, it is a lot different. Which makes sense after what tomswift2002 said about it originally going to be a new book called The Iroquois Mystery.

[MacGyver]

Yeah- that is true. I thought both versions still had to do with Native American beliefs though...

[tomswift2002]

The Original version by Leslie McFarlane didn't have anything to do with Native American beliefs.  Leslie McFarlane did include the subplot about "Mr. Spanish" and how he was a Mexican.

In Britain and the British Commonwealth, the Revised Text of The Melted Coins was never released till the late-1990's, after Collins and it's imprint Armada, had lost the rights to the books (at which point the rights appear to have gone to Grosset & Dunlap who just export the American version to the UK).  So the Original Text of The Melted Coins by Leslie McFarlane, while being out of print in the US and Canada for 25 years, was still in print in Britain and the Commonwealth till 1995, possible even later while the stock of the books ran out.  But when you think about, Leslie McFarlane wrote The Melted Coins in 1944, and yet, in 1995, 51 years after writing it, and in the meantime someone else had rewritten it, McFarlane's story was still in print.  I think the British know which is the better version of the story, since it would've probably been easy for Collins to have arranged with Simon & Schuster to have released the revised text at anytime.  But, also the reason why the Original Text was originally sent to Collins, was that the book was only revised and reissued in late-1970, but Collins wanted to release it as #7 in their series in 1971, so the only available version at the time was the Original 1944 version.

[MacGyver]

Hmm- in that case, I may have actually read the original text version of The Melted Coins- I grew up reading a lot of the British printings (Collins and Armada) before reading the American ones (Grossett & Dunlap). Do you know if the original text has the scene depicted on the cover I posted earlier (with the pirate dude trying to tattoo Joe)?

[tomswift2002]

Here's a list of all the different versions of The Melted Coins that have been released in Britain and the British Commonwealth (excluding Canada, due to the Canadian rights being held by Grosset & Dunlap) from hardyboys.co.uk:

http://www.hardyboys.co.uk/gallery/07.php

The 1972 Hardcover and 1974 Softcover editions both have the "pirate dude" trying to tattoo Joe. 

But, as I said before, in the UK and the Commonwealth, the version of The Melted Coins available before the late-90's was the Original version written by Leslie McFarlane.  On the link there, you'll see that when Sampson Low printed the book in 1967 they reused the then-current American cover painted by John Leone with Frank being pulled out of the hole.  And considering that Grosset & Dunlap are now exporting the Classic books to the UK and the rest of the Commonwealth, then it is the revised text with the 1970 cover art.

[MacGyver]

Interesting. Thanks for the breakdown. I'm pretty sure I've read both the original and the revised versions at different points then. Unfortunately, it's been a long while in reading either one, so I don't recall a whole lot from either version right now...

[SDLagent]

Hmm- in that case, I may have actually read the original text version of The Melted Coins- I grew up reading a lot of the British printings (Collins and Armada) before reading the American ones (Grossett & Dunlap). Do you know if the original text has the scene depicted on the cover I posted earlier (with the pirate dude trying to tattoo Joe)?

The "pirate dude" is in the original  but not the revised text.

[MacGyver]

Okay- then I'm pretty sure it was the original text that I read first- though I think I did read the revised version later on down the road- and I remember thinking that it was definitely different from what I remembered...(of the original text- though I don't know if I knew the difference at the time...)

[kosmicdust]

Just for future reference, the Hardy Boys UK website has a page detailing when the original and revised text versions were published in the UK:

http://www.hardyboys.co.uk/history/append1.php

(f course, it doesn't cover the more recent availability of the G&D blue-spine hardbacks, which are technically imported US editions.

[MacGyver]

Cool! That's very helpful, especially for anyone who grew up with the British printings and orderings of The Hardy Boys books before becoming familiar with the American printings and orderings. And then to throw in the whole original text vs. revised issue as well- yeah, that gets really confusing. Thanks for the link- I appreciate it.