Talk:The Awakening Land trilogy

On the Alleged Revised Edition

I don't think it's accurate to call the Ohio University Press edition revised. I am doing a line by line comparison of the original, first edition from Knopf and the Ohio University Press edition. I've also been in contact with the press editor, who was involved with the edition's publication. From what I've seen so far, there are a few minor word changes, but nothing significant and nothing that would warrant calling this a revised edition. I would like to see the Amazon reviews linked here. Once I finish my comparison, I will edit the Wikipedia page if appropriate.

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I have recently been improving the pages describing Conrad Richter’s 1966 trilogy of novels The Awakening Land by adding references, writing style, major themes, images, etc. While doing this, I noticed that the plot summary on the page describing Richter’s second novel in the trilogy, The Fields (which was created by another editor), is different in several major aspects from the plot I read in my original edition copy issued by Alfred A. Knopf.

I have since learned (through Amazon.com reviews) that a “revised” edition of The Awakening Land was issued in 1993 by the Ohio University Press that was rewritten by the publishers to include scenes that Conrad Richter never wrote in the original novels. I have since re-written the plot summary on this page so that it reflects the original novel.

I think it is important that future users who come to these Wikipedia articles are aware that there is a revised edition of this trilogy out there, because they may wonder (like I did) why the plot summary on Wikipedia may differ from the one they read. So I posted a question at The Teahouse asking if I should also address this whole issue of a revised vs. original edition on Wikipedia.

A Teahouse host said this is probably something notable that would make a reasonable addition to the articles and suggested that I might want to add a brief section to the pages for this trilogy, stating simply that there is a revised edition of this trilogy and that the plots are significantly different. He also suggested that I post this issue at the Wikipedia Novels forum for discussion. I will probably do this in the coming days. In the meantime, I also plan to find out as much as I can about the revised edition of this trilogy (probably by tracking down a copy at a library and reading it myself; also by looking for independent sources that can be used as references) so that I can address it fully on Wikipedia.Perpetual Reader (talk) 20:16, 10 July 2013 (UTC)


 * I just did a flyby consisting of trifling changes to this article yesterday and then noticed your comments above today. I applaud your efforts to improve this and related articles. For what it's worth, I note that this article makes many claims, especially in the "Major themes" section that are not supported by any reliable source(s). If you know of or encounter sources for the existing claims, it would help if you added them. If you are not certain yet just how to add citations, I'd be glad to help. I haven't read the books, so I would be no help with content, but I might be able to help with sourcing and formatting issues. Finetooth (talk) 21:05, 12 July 2013 (UTC)


 * I came up with the "major themes" from my own observations while reading the books. I can add quotes from the books to back them up. I am also looking for independent sources on the author, which I will add as soon as I have time, and perhaps some contemporary reviews about the books to use as citations, although no luck with that so far. Perpetual Reader (talk) 21:17, 15 July 2013 (UTC)

I recently watched the 1978 television adaptation of this trilogy, which is now available on DVD. Many plot changes were introduced into the television version, which were subsequently included in the revised print editions of the trilogy released by the Ohio University Press in 1991. Since this explains the plot discrepancies between the original books published by Alfred A. Knopf and the revised editions, I have noted this in "Revised Editions" section of this page, as well as added a new section which lists some of the differences between the books and the television adaptation.Perpetual Reader (talk) 19:02, 18 January 2014 (UTC)

I just noticed that the link to "Ohio Valley" that I inserted into this article when I created it redirects to a Wikipedia article entitled "Ohio River." However, I think a more appropriate article for this link to be redirected to would be the one called "Ohio Country." The term "Ohio Valley" refers to a specific geographical region of the country, not to the Ohio River itself.

Am I allowed to change this redirect myself, or do I need to refer it to an editorial group for discussion?Perpetual Reader (talk) 22:59, 29 June 2017 (UTC)