IVP - Addenda & Errata - Laying Up for Winter

Laying Up for Winter

I’ve been noticing it for the past couple weeks. On my occasional morning runs up Tiger Mountain, Doug Fir cones are beginning to litter the trail. Some of them are shredded. Most are whole, and potential roller skates for unwary human feet. I can hear cones ricocheting through the branches and thumping into the undergrowth and forest duff below, and the sound of little feet scurrying in the barky trees. On the squirrel calendar, it’s time for cutting down cones and laying up provender for winter. The mountainside echoes with their industry, and my dog—who hardly wastes a worry over his next meal—makes sport of harassing this busy crew.

Back at my desk it’s time for laying up books for winter. There’s a bustle of activity in the editorial office of IVP Academic as we send our “Winter” books off to the printer. (Ordinary folks would call these “Fall” books since many will come out in October and November. But, suggesting a kinship with squirrels, we publishers put them in the “Winter” pile in order to confuse interlopers.)

You can hear the chatter:

“Can you check this cover before it goes to the printer?”

“How did the author want her name on the cover?”

“Are the running heads right?”

“Did the author intend to leave out that footnote when he sent in his revised chapter?”

“I just received the subject index from the author—and just in time! Here you go!”

“I’ll give you the ‘final set’ to check over tomorrow. It goes to the printer on Thursday.”

“I just discovered an error on page 96, footnote 6. ‘Rudolph’ should be ‘Rudolf’ Bultmann. Sheesh! And I suppose he had a red nose?”

“Can we fit this new endorsement on the back cover?”

“No. It’s way too late. We can’t possibly add that appendix.”

“Do you want Quadragesima in itals or not?”

“Page 56, line 7: ‘than’ should be ‘that.’”

“Page 65, line 15: ‘that’ should be ‘than’”

“It’s either terminus a quo or ad quem. Not a quem!”

“The Hebrew transliterations on pp. 38-39 are definitely not right. Shall we go ahead and correct them or ask the author first?”

Like the chattering in the forest canopy, these are the sounds of a happily industrious editorial staff laying up provisions for … well, for your fall (or winter) reading! While it is difficult for an editor to stay “on task” with ongoing projects while there is so much chatter over this year’s harvest, it’s a necessary part of editorial life.

Since we value our Addenda & Errata readers, we’ll tip you off. Here are some of the books in biblical and theological studies that you’ll find stashed under the autumn leaves:

James Beilby & Paul Eddy, eds., The Historical Jesus: Five Views (with Robert Price, John Dominic Crossan, Luke Timothy Johnson, James D. G. Dunn and Darrell Bock)

Brett Scott Provance, Pocket Dictionary of Liturgy & Worship

John H. Sailhamer, The Meaning of the Pentateuch: Revelation, Composition & Interpretation

John Goldingay, Old Testament Theology, Volume 3: Israel’s Life

Christopher Hall, Worshiping with the Church Fathers

Thomas F. Torrance, Atonement: The Person and Work of Christ

Donald Fairbairn, Life in the Trinity: An Introduction to Theology with the Help of the Church Fathers

Ben Witherington, The Indelible Image: The Theological and Ethical Thought World of the New Testament, Volume 1

David Firth and H. G. M. Williamson, eds., Interpreting Isaiah: Issues and Approaches

If you’re starving for reading on a long winter’s night, don’t blame us!