An "Anonymous" blogger informed me that 'The Ancient' was published in 2000 - NOT 2001 as I have stated. "Anonymous" directed me to the websites of Alibris and Amazon. To my utter amazement I saw that Ms Gray's book dated 2000 is advertised for sale in Canada, Australia, USA and UK, it has the ISBN 9780002243810.
This is a matter that has occupied a great deal of my attention over a period of ELEVEN years - I had never seen the date of 2000 in any connection with "The Ancient." [It made no difference to my claim - as I have said I have "incontrovertible proof of the date of 1998."] But I was suspicious, and so I decided to investigate.
I do not know how the system of selling books over the internet works - I would appreciate hearing from anybody who can explain to me how a book that is not registered with any known authority can be advertised for sale with a valid ISBN number but an incorrect date. Would one need connections within the publishing industry?
The ISBN number 9780002243810 has never been used for any book dated 2000 therefore sellers appear to be unknowingly displaying false information regarding the date on the internet.
Further;-
Here are some of the links to webpages advertising 'The Ancient' 2000;-
When a book is published, by law a copy has to be deposited with a repository, eg. in the UK it is the British Library, in the USA the Library of Congress, viz;-
“Under section 15 of the Copyright Act 1911, a copy of each book or serial or other printed publication which is published in the UK is required to be deposited, free of charge, in the British Library.”
In the USA the Copyright Act 1976 requires a similar deposit (as above) to the Library of Congress.
Neither of the above repositories lists "The Ancient" dated 2000.
Neither lists the ISBN 9780002243810.
I found the ISBN 9780002243810 listed with the Library and Archives Canada;-
NAME(S):*Gray, Muriel
TITLE(S): The ancient / Muriel Gray
PUBLISHER: London : HarperCollins, 2001.
NUMBERS: ISBN: 0002253143
ISBN: 0002243814
[The UK ISBN agency informed me that this equates to the 13 digit no. 9780002243810 - the final digit may alter when the 10 digit number is changed to 13 digits].
The question has to be asked, "Why are booksellers listing 'The Ancient' as 2000?"
I wrote to the booksellers, I said that I would like to purchase a copy of 'The Ancient' but could they please ensure that it was dated 2000. All the replies I received informed me that their copies were dated 2001.
I then tried to find out from the sellers why they had incorrectly dated this book at 2000 I did not receive any response - there must be a trail leading to the origins of the 2000 date. If anybody could tell me how I can follow it I would be most grateful.
I gave HarperCollins the details of the above, that one of their books was on sale, around the world, with an incorrect date attached to it. They chose not to comment.
If there is anything that I have stated on this site that is not correct; if Muriel Gray, Harper Collins, Browne Jacobson, or any person(s) mentioned in these pages, contacts me and provides the evidence or counter argument to show that I am not correct, or...
if there is anything that I have stated that anybody believes misrepresents them in any way, if they provide me with their arguments...
then, if necessary, I will consider removing the material, and/or publish a correction, and/or apologise.
If I do not hear anything (nobody has complained to me since I set up this site in March 2010) then I can only assume the accuracy of everything on this site, and that nobody has been misrepresented in any way.