Combining author A Fielding with A E Fielding
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1rretzler
Sorry for the length - I'm just trying to give all the facts in an attempt to avoid a ton of questions (which will probably backfire on me.)
As I was cleaning up my library last week, I noticed that two series books I own by the same author have been separated into two different authors - one as A Fielding and the other as A E Fielding. I had previously done some research and determined that A Fielding and A E Fielding are the same person. I have since verified this in John M Reilly's Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers and Allen J Hubin's Crime Fiction II (I have a copy of both books.) A year or so ago, I put some links on A Fielding's page indicating this, and I thought I had combined the authors at that time (although I may be misremembering combining them.)
There is now a disambiguation notice on A Fielding's page saying Do not combine this page with any of the various authors who share this surname and initial. However, as I know for a fact that these are the same author. Both Reilly and Hubin indicate that some books were released as A Fielding and others as A E Fielding (A E Fielding was used mainly in the US). Also the research that I linked to indicates that A Fielding sometimes used A E Fielding. I double-checked in both Reilly and Hubin that the books listed under each author page are actually by the same single author. In fact, it is clear in looking at the books on each authors' page that the A E Fielding books are in the series Chief Inspector Pointer, as are the A Fielding books.
So last week, knowing that I was correct, I combined A Fielding and A Fielding, cleaning up the author's real name (Dorothy Feilding), birth year, nationality, etc and I also added in the disambiguation Many of the author's books were also published in the US, under sometimes slightly different titles, not noted here. In the US the byline was often A. E. Fielding. Please do not delete the links above, they contain information about the author's identity which has been extensively researched. I did this hoping that someone would not come along and redo what I had done.
Today, I was again cleaning things up and noticed that there are again two separate authors. I tried to look in the logs, but I couldn't see who separated them or how they were separated. It appears that I was the last person to make any changes. So, I'm wondering is there somehow a "never" on these two authors? Why are they now separate again? Is there something that is in the logs that I'm not seeing? (I haven't really searched the logs much, so I may have missed something.) I have successfully combined a number of authors over the years, so I don't think its anything I did incorrectly - there was only one combined author last week - but perhaps I inadvertently did something.
I'd really like to combine these two authors, because they are the same person.
https://www.librarything.com/author/fieldinga
https://www.librarything.com/author/fieldingae
I'm happy to do it and clean it up again, but if someone has an issue with it for some reason, I want to make sure that I address it so that we are on the same page. I'm not sure why someone thinks these two should not be combined. If it is a "never" situation, I want to get that cleared up as well.
If anyone can help get to the bottom of this, please let me know.
As I was cleaning up my library last week, I noticed that two series books I own by the same author have been separated into two different authors - one as A Fielding and the other as A E Fielding. I had previously done some research and determined that A Fielding and A E Fielding are the same person. I have since verified this in John M Reilly's Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers and Allen J Hubin's Crime Fiction II (I have a copy of both books.) A year or so ago, I put some links on A Fielding's page indicating this, and I thought I had combined the authors at that time (although I may be misremembering combining them.)
There is now a disambiguation notice on A Fielding's page saying Do not combine this page with any of the various authors who share this surname and initial. However, as I know for a fact that these are the same author. Both Reilly and Hubin indicate that some books were released as A Fielding and others as A E Fielding (A E Fielding was used mainly in the US). Also the research that I linked to indicates that A Fielding sometimes used A E Fielding. I double-checked in both Reilly and Hubin that the books listed under each author page are actually by the same single author. In fact, it is clear in looking at the books on each authors' page that the A E Fielding books are in the series Chief Inspector Pointer, as are the A Fielding books.
So last week, knowing that I was correct, I combined A Fielding and A Fielding, cleaning up the author's real name (Dorothy Feilding), birth year, nationality, etc and I also added in the disambiguation Many of the author's books were also published in the US, under sometimes slightly different titles, not noted here. In the US the byline was often A. E. Fielding. Please do not delete the links above, they contain information about the author's identity which has been extensively researched. I did this hoping that someone would not come along and redo what I had done.
Today, I was again cleaning things up and noticed that there are again two separate authors. I tried to look in the logs, but I couldn't see who separated them or how they were separated. It appears that I was the last person to make any changes. So, I'm wondering is there somehow a "never" on these two authors? Why are they now separate again? Is there something that is in the logs that I'm not seeing? (I haven't really searched the logs much, so I may have missed something.) I have successfully combined a number of authors over the years, so I don't think its anything I did incorrectly - there was only one combined author last week - but perhaps I inadvertently did something.
I'd really like to combine these two authors, because they are the same person.
https://www.librarything.com/author/fieldinga
https://www.librarything.com/author/fieldingae
I'm happy to do it and clean it up again, but if someone has an issue with it for some reason, I want to make sure that I address it so that we are on the same page. I'm not sure why someone thinks these two should not be combined. If it is a "never" situation, I want to get that cleared up as well.
If anyone can help get to the bottom of this, please let me know.
2lilithcat
The difficulty is that there are a slew of authors with the surname "Fielding" whose first names begin with "A".
As the wiki states, the following should not be combined: "A surname, or surname and initial, only with an author with that surname, even if it's the most popular. (Neither "Brown" nor "D.Brown" should be combined with "Dan Brown") https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/HelpThing:Author
As the wiki states, the following should not be combined: "A surname, or surname and initial, only with an author with that surname, even if it's the most popular. (Neither "Brown" nor "D.Brown" should be combined with "Dan Brown") https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/HelpThing:Author
3rretzler
>2 lilithcat: I completely agree with you, and I understand what the wiki states. The disambiguation on A Fielding can stay if that is your concern. However, I'm sure that the wiki does not mean that I cannot combine A Fielding (which is the way her name appeared as an author on the books she wrote - it was not short for anything) with AE Fielding just because they both use initials if they are the same author. I believe I understand what the wiki is trying to say, and I feel certain that it does not contemplate combining an author whose name actually starts with an initial with a pseudonym of the SAME author which begins with an initial. ALL of the books under both A Fielding and AE Fielding were written by A Fielding. I can understand not combining Brown or D. Brown with Dan Brown because one might not be combining the same author.
My issue is that I do NOT want to combine any other A Fielding except for the two that are clearly the same author. The books under AE Fielding are the books written by A Fielding. A Fielding wrote as AE Fielding in the US. It is quite clear that these two are the same, and I am ONLY concerned with combining them. I don't care about any other A Fieldings. I want LT and my library to reflect that the books listed under the two authors in the links above are actually those of the Chief Inspector Pointer series written by A Fielding (pen name of Dorothy Feilding), whose books were issued in the US as AE Fielding.
I'm reasonably sure that I've combined these two authors twice over the years - or at least once last week, yet they are separate again. I want to get them correctly combined. If this is a case of them being a "never" combine, I want to get that fixed. If you or anyone else doesn't think that these two authors are the same, please let me know so that I can provide several instances of proof that they are indeed the same.
I know that I am combining the same author here, and I want to make it correct. It seems reasonable that regardless of how many authors out there have first names beginning with A - Ann, Archie, Abigail, Arnold, etc. - these people are NOT the author A Fielding who wrote the Chief Inspector Fielding series. A Fielding should NOT be a catchall; that's why we have the disambiguation notices. But the correct name of the author in question is A Fielding. I will be happy to copy the relevant information in the reference books I own and provide it to you if you want proof. I would also change the disambiguation to say This A Fielding is the author of the Chief Inspector Pointer series, who wrote 25 books between 1924 and 1944. She also contributed to The Second Crime Club Omnibus. Please do not combine with any other authors with the same initial.
My issue is that I do NOT want to combine any other A Fielding except for the two that are clearly the same author. The books under AE Fielding are the books written by A Fielding. A Fielding wrote as AE Fielding in the US. It is quite clear that these two are the same, and I am ONLY concerned with combining them. I don't care about any other A Fieldings. I want LT and my library to reflect that the books listed under the two authors in the links above are actually those of the Chief Inspector Pointer series written by A Fielding (pen name of Dorothy Feilding), whose books were issued in the US as AE Fielding.
I'm reasonably sure that I've combined these two authors twice over the years - or at least once last week, yet they are separate again. I want to get them correctly combined. If this is a case of them being a "never" combine, I want to get that fixed. If you or anyone else doesn't think that these two authors are the same, please let me know so that I can provide several instances of proof that they are indeed the same.
I know that I am combining the same author here, and I want to make it correct. It seems reasonable that regardless of how many authors out there have first names beginning with A - Ann, Archie, Abigail, Arnold, etc. - these people are NOT the author A Fielding who wrote the Chief Inspector Fielding series. A Fielding should NOT be a catchall; that's why we have the disambiguation notices. But the correct name of the author in question is A Fielding. I will be happy to copy the relevant information in the reference books I own and provide it to you if you want proof. I would also change the disambiguation to say This A Fielding is the author of the Chief Inspector Pointer series, who wrote 25 books between 1924 and 1944. She also contributed to The Second Crime Club Omnibus. Please do not combine with any other authors with the same initial.
4AnnieMod
>3 rretzler: But you cannot combine just one "A Fielding". ALL "A Fielding" use the same ID: fieldinga. That's the level you can combine.
If someone who has a book by say Anna Fielding and they add it under the name A. Fielding, it will appear on the same page as the one you are trying to combine here. At this point we can split and alias - but if you had already combined A Fielding into A E Fielding, that book will show up as by A E Fielding even though Anna Fielding has absolutely nothing to do with A E Fielding.
That's why we do not combine initials. That's simply how the DB works - annoying but it is what it is.
>3 rretzler: "regardless of how many authors out there have first names beginning with A - Ann, Archie, Abigail, Arnold, etc. - these people are NOT the author A Fielding who wrote the Chief Inspector Fielding series."
They are not - noone says they are. But they share the same page in LT if a user uses just their initial for their first name. That's how the system is built. That's what we split authors for when/if a book from the other authors show up. No one is arguing that one of the A Fielding is the same as the A E one. What we are trying to explain is that in LT the A Fielding page can contain books from many authors with that initial and that family name.
Of course they were separated again - someone was fixing the mess you created when you combined them. :) Please try to understand what I and >2 lilithcat: are trying to explain here - combining these two authors is not the correct action here.
If someone who has a book by say Anna Fielding and they add it under the name A. Fielding, it will appear on the same page as the one you are trying to combine here. At this point we can split and alias - but if you had already combined A Fielding into A E Fielding, that book will show up as by A E Fielding even though Anna Fielding has absolutely nothing to do with A E Fielding.
That's why we do not combine initials. That's simply how the DB works - annoying but it is what it is.
>3 rretzler: "regardless of how many authors out there have first names beginning with A - Ann, Archie, Abigail, Arnold, etc. - these people are NOT the author A Fielding who wrote the Chief Inspector Fielding series."
They are not - noone says they are. But they share the same page in LT if a user uses just their initial for their first name. That's how the system is built. That's what we split authors for when/if a book from the other authors show up. No one is arguing that one of the A Fielding is the same as the A E one. What we are trying to explain is that in LT the A Fielding page can contain books from many authors with that initial and that family name.
Of course they were separated again - someone was fixing the mess you created when you combined them. :) Please try to understand what I and >2 lilithcat: are trying to explain here - combining these two authors is not the correct action here.
5rretzler
>4 AnnieMod: I would have understood what >2 lilithcat: was saying if she would have taken the time to explain why it could not be done as you did instead of just saying that I could not do it, so I appreciate that you took the time to tell me. Lesson learned on my part - perhaps it goes the other way as well? ;-)
I'm looking to try to fix things here, so it would be more helpful to try to work together to come up with a solution. I'm sure there must be a way to do this instead of just telling me I'm SOL. :-) This is why I asked in the first place. It doesn't make sense the way things are currently with most of the books under A Fielding and the rest under AE Fielding.
You say "if you had already combined A Fielding into AE Fielding...", is there a way to combine AE Fielding into A Fielding?
Can the books under A Fielding be aliased to AE Fielding (since they are all by the same author) and then for AE Fielding's canonical name put A Fielding?
Are there any other ways around this?
I'm looking to try to fix things here, so it would be more helpful to try to work together to come up with a solution. I'm sure there must be a way to do this instead of just telling me I'm SOL. :-) This is why I asked in the first place. It doesn't make sense the way things are currently with most of the books under A Fielding and the rest under AE Fielding.
You say "if you had already combined A Fielding into AE Fielding...", is there a way to combine AE Fielding into A Fielding?
Can the books under A Fielding be aliased to AE Fielding (since they are all by the same author) and then for AE Fielding's canonical name put A Fielding?
Are there any other ways around this?
6MarthaJeanne
Please do NOT put in a canonical author that matches another LT author. In most cases a canonical author just confuses the issue even more.
7AnnieMod
>5 rretzler: I did mention the way - in passing but it is there - split and alias. :)
Split A Fielding, assign the A E Fielding books to 1 in the split and then alias that to A E Fielding. The issue with that is that some people will undo all this if all books are actually from the same author - but I think this is a legitimate case to do it that way and explain in the disambig note why.
If course you can combine the two. Can and should are different things though. :) if you combine them and someone does not undo it, my scenario above will happen. That’s why someone undid it after you combined the previous time.
Split A Fielding, assign the A E Fielding books to 1 in the split and then alias that to A E Fielding. The issue with that is that some people will undo all this if all books are actually from the same author - but I think this is a legitimate case to do it that way and explain in the disambig note why.
If course you can combine the two. Can and should are different things though. :) if you combine them and someone does not undo it, my scenario above will happen. That’s why someone undid it after you combined the previous time.
8Nicole_VanK
Alternatively, we could also combine all authors surnamed Smith and take it from there. Personally I think that would be a disaster though
