Knitters have long been awaiting a reprint of the comprehensive reference book Principles of Knitting. A revised edition was scheduled to come out in 2009, then the publication date was pushed to fall 2010.
Jane Jacobs at Porter Square Books has contacted the original publisher, Simon & Schuster. A customer service person there told her the book was out of stock indefinitely, and said they had no more information. Jane then emailed the store's representative at Simon & Schuster, who told her the book was definitely out of print and the publisher has no plans to reprint it. She has asked him to find out whether the rights reverted to the author.
Jane promised updates if she finds out anything else. If she does, it will be posted here.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
3 comments:
What I read on a knitting list (perhaps the Knit List) was that the author owned the rights & she was updating it & planned to republish it. That was quite awhile ago - maybe 2 years.
My understanding is that the publisher never intended to reissue the book & that is why JHH planned to do it herself. Here is an email from the author from the Knitting Univers (Knitters) site (one would think she could have finished up in over 9 years!):
Date: Wed, 06 Dec 2000 22:31:19 -0800
From: June H Hiatt
Subject: Knit U: Principles of Knitting
Dear Helen:
Thank you for your interest in Principles of Knitting, which has indeed been
selling for rather remarkable prices since it went out of print at the end
of 1996. A little over a year ago I decided that rather than allowing it to
be reprinted, I wanted to do a second edition (this means the book will be
substantially revised and redesigned). Unfortunately, I have only been able
to turn my full attention to it recently.
At this point I have done a preliminary rewrite and now, in an effort to
make the new edition as complete as possible, I am researching techniques
that were not available to me when I wrote the book in the mid-1980s. There
have been so many new, wonderful books published in the last 10-15 years,
and I am really enjoying the opportunity to immerse myself in the
contributions of the talented knitters who brought them to us. The next
phase will be a final rewrite, then the illustrations will need some
revisions and additions before the book is ready for the design and
production phase. It is, as you can imagine, a very big project and at this
time I do not know how long it will take me. The first edition took seven
years; I am hoping this one will take no more than half that. However, when
one heads into uncharted territory, it is difficult to predict how long the
journey will be!
Needless to say, it is very gratifying to know of the continued interest in
my book and I am as eager as anyone for it to be available once again. You
can be sure that the members of KnitU will be notified as soon as a new
publication date is set.
Thank you,
June Hemmons Hiatt
Thanks for the info, mwknitter! I'll pass that along to Jane.
Post a Comment