The ambiguity is heightened, however, when MacDonald himself is inconsistent in his usage. Sometimes he does capitalize He and Him. Sometimes God is referred to as father, at other times as Father. But he is inconsistent (whether by intent or blunder I have never been able to ascertain)—with he and Him (both referring to God or Jesus), and father and Father, perhaps even occurring in the same sentence.

Punctuation, likewise, varies from edition to edition—colons, dashes, quotation marks, paragraph breaks being the most common differences. Quotation marks (‘single’) sometimes follow U.K. convention, at other times U.S. convention (“double”). But it is not so simple as whether a particular edition was published in the U.K. or U.S. Some U.K first editions use American quotation marks, and likewise some U.S. editions use British spellings. It is very confusing.

Most readers won’t notice and won’t care about such tiny details. But the occasional purist may say, “Hey, wait a minute, my original edition has a colon here, and this new edition has a comma!” Granted, there won’t be many who will be so persnickety. But for those few of you, I will only say that I have made use of as many original editions as possible—for nearly every title at least two, sometimes more—to compare these minor distinctions. Then I have followed what I consider the “best” usage or punctuation under the circumstances (which is obviously my own judgment call) and that which I consider the most likely usage MacDonald himself originally would have employed. But obviously in some cases I may be mistaken.

* “George MacDonald: A Personal Note” by Ronald MacDonald, Chapter 3 in From A Northern Window, James Nisbet & Co., 1911, reprinted in book form as From A Northern Window, Volume One in The Masterline Series, Sunrise Books, Eureka, CA 1989.

* For the texts of the books of the series, and quotes referenced from them, I have preserved most British spellings. In my introductions, when I am speaking for myself, I use American spellings. In quoting from other books and authors, I obviously retain the usage of the original source.

Speaking further on my own behalf, there are some half-dozen instances in the titles of The Cullen Collection where I have exercised somewhat greater editorial latitude in my handling of MacDonald’s original texts. These have taken two primary forms. One, in certain cases I have added a “Prologue” or “Epilogue” where I felt a bit of introductory setting-the-scene would introduce the flow of the story more smoothly, or, in the case of the latter, wrap up the story a little more satisfactorily. These are clearly indicated as my additions. In the second instance (which includes this title,) I have rearranged MacDonald’s chapter sequence in order (from my perspective) to open the narrative and establish the story on a smoother and more fluid foundation. This is one of the advantages (some may consider it a drawback!) of the fact that I also wear an “author’s” hat. I am not merely an editor/redacter. I am also a novelist. I think as both an editor and an author. I cannot entirely turn off that side of my creative psyche. Nor do I want to. I believe that being an author of both fiction and non-fiction helps immeasurably in my thoughtful attempt to get inside MacDonald’s creative psyche, and then represent and interpret and restructure his writings as I feel he might were he writing for today’s audience. Whether I do so in every case effectively, of course, will be in the eye of the beholder. In any event, notwithstanding the objections that will surely be voiced, this is what I have done.