* A word of clarification at this point will hopefully alleviate minor confusions that may arise about certain usages of punctuation and capitalization. In speaking of the original texts of MacDonald’s books, a phrase such as the “texts by which they are generally known,” is not really accurate. For most of MacDonald’s books there are no absolutely authoritative texts. Editions vary widely, even so-called “first editions.” This is a theme that will be developed in the introductions to other editions of The Cullen Collection, and is a fascinating study in itself. Suffice it at this point to say that punctuation and capitalization varies. Sometimes the differences are between U.S. and U.K. editions—American publishers capitalizing lower case words from the British editions (in addition to changing words such as labour, honour, odour, parlour, neighbourhood, etc. to their American spellings). This is especially the case with the God-pronouns He and Him. MacDonald usually wrote these in the lower case, as he did nouns of direct address in dialogue—mother, father, aunt, uncle, your majesty, etc.—which are occasionally capitalized in U.S. editions.

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.