Mystery and Crime Van Dine, S.S.: The Benson Murder Case. V2. 24 Nov 2008

crutledge · 11-24-2008, 07:37 PM

Willard Huntington Wright pseud. S. S. Van Dine, 1888-1939, American art critic and mystery story writer, b. Charlottesville, Va. He attended college in California and later studied art in Paris and Munich. Wright was literary critic for the Los Angeles Times and several periodicals and was editor (1912-14) of the Smart Set. Before 1923 he wrote nine books, chiefly art criticism, including Modern Painting (1915), The Creative Will (1916), and The Future of Painting (1923). After suffering a breakdown of health, he began writing highly successful detective stories under his pseudonym, modeling the erudite detective, Philo Vance, after himself. The best of these works include The Benson Murder Case (1926), The Canary Murder Case (1927), and The Bishop Murder Case (1929).
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition

New York dilettante Philo Vance decides to assist the police in investigating the death of another man-about-town because he finds the psychological aspects of the crime of interest and feels that they would be beyond the capacities of the police, even those of his friend District Attorney Markham. Vance investigates the circumstances under which the body was found and reconstructs the crime sufficiently to determine that the murderer is five feet, ten and a half inches in height. Together, Vance and Markham investigate Benson's business associates and romantic interests until Vance manages to pierce the murderer's alibi for the time of the murder and force a confession

mtravellerh · 11-25-2008, 04:22 AM

No reason for this to be uploaded again. Harry posted this fairly recently. A shame for the double work, really. You better do a quick search before beginning to work on a book.

soilwork · 11-25-2008, 04:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mtravellerh

No reason for this to be uploaded again. Harry posted this fairly recently. A shame for the double work, really. You better do a quick search before beginning to work on a book.

Well, I disagree with you. This book has a different cover and also has TOC to illustrations which make it easy to refer to them when necessary.

mtravellerh · 11-25-2008, 04:50 AM

The point, for me, is the fact that the book has already been made in this format and has been nicely made.
I do not criticize crutledge's work at all, because he is doing a good job.

But there are tons and tons of other texts waiting out there to be turned to good books, so that there really is no need to remake a book that has been done more than conveniently already.

A little search on MR would have left him time for doing something that has not been done yet. It only takes 30 secs.

Nuff said on this subject. And, crutledge, please go on doing what you do. I like it.

soilwork · 11-25-2008, 05:07 AM

Well, your reply was pretty terse, so I was not sure whether you even checked out the book. I accept that you are not criticizing his work and I think your advice is well-intended. However, I still disagree with you here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mtravellerh

But there are tons and tons of other texts waiting out there to be turned to good books, so that there really is no need to remake a book that has been done more than conveniently already.

I think MR people makes books because he/she likes the book. I see no reason why someone should be discouraged from making his/her favorite books in his/her version again regardless whether there is another version or not.

HarryT · 11-25-2008, 05:17 AM

People are, of course, very welcome to post whatever (legal) book they wish.

However, there is little point in posting a duplicate book which adds no significant benefit to books which are already here. If the poster considers that their work does add something to the original, it would be helpful if they could state what it is for the benefit of downloaders.

A quick look at this book, however, reveals a number of things which could be improved:

1. It does not preserve em-dashes; they have been replaced by hyphens (hyphens and dashes are typographically entirely distinct).

2. The sub-title of each chapter (the time and date) has been "absorbed" into the body text of the chapter.

3. No attempt has been made to convert the "in-line" notes to end-notes, and since there is no clear deliniation of notes within the text it's not always clear what's "note" and what's "text".

4. The table of contents title is not centred.

Addressing these issues would significantly improve the book.

crutledge · 11-27-2008, 06:14 PM

I have tried to address all of the comments made by Harry. There are now end notes, the subtitles have been corrected. I still have not figured out how to apply the emdash inlieu of the hyphen.
The book was made from the text download from PG Australia. IAW Harry's instructions, I downloaded the HTML version and deleted the <script> entries at the beginning andthe end. This cured the problem of assigning book title and book author, but when I try to correct the "spoofers" that the element browser picks up, again the whole file is changed. I have used HTML files from others and had no problem. In most cases, I would prefer the HTML, but there is something in the PGA files that I have yet to find. Any further guidance would be appreciated. HTML is possibly the only way to create an emdash.

Charlie

Patricia · 11-27-2008, 07:12 PM

Use the book Cleaner files, so that emdashes are preserved when you import the book. And, in the "make Sony Reader Book" pane, click on the "as it is" option for dashes. This should keep them all as they were in your source, crutledge.

I hope that this helps.

11-24-2008, 07:37 PM	#1
crutledge eBook FANatic Posts: 18,301 Karma: 16071131 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Alabama, USA Device: HP ipac RX5915 Wife's Kindle	Van Dine, S.S.: The Benson Murder Case. V2. 24 Nov 2008 Willard Huntington Wright pseud. S. S. Van Dine, 1888-1939, American art critic and mystery story writer, b. Charlottesville, Va. He attended college in California and later studied art in Paris and Munich. Wright was literary critic for the Los Angeles Times and several periodicals and was editor (1912-14) of the Smart Set. Before 1923 he wrote nine books, chiefly art criticism, including Modern Painting (1915), The Creative Will (1916), and The Future of Painting (1923). After suffering a breakdown of health, he began writing highly successful detective stories under his pseudonym, modeling the erudite detective, Philo Vance, after himself. The best of these works include The Benson Murder Case (1926), The Canary Murder Case (1927), and The Bishop Murder Case (1929). The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition New York dilettante Philo Vance decides to assist the police in investigating the death of another man-about-town because he finds the psychological aspects of the crime of interest and feels that they would be beyond the capacities of the police, even those of his friend District Attorney Markham. Vance investigates the circumstances under which the body was found and reconstructs the crime sufficiently to determine that the murderer is five feet, ten and a half inches in height. Together, Vance and Markham investigate Benson's business associates and romantic interests until Vance manages to pierce the murderer's alibi for the time of the murder and force a confession Last edited by crutledge; 11-27-2008 at 05:54 PM.

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11-25-2008, 04:22 AM	#2
mtravellerh book creator Posts: 9,635 Karma: 3856660 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Luxembourg Device: PB360°	No reason for this to be uploaded again. Harry posted this fairly recently. A shame for the double work, really. You better do a quick search before beginning to work on a book.

11-25-2008, 04:50 AM	#4
mtravellerh book creator Posts: 9,635 Karma: 3856660 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Luxembourg Device: PB360°	The point, for me, is the fact that the book has already been made in this format and has been nicely made. I do not criticize crutledge's work at all, because he is doing a good job. But there are tons and tons of other texts waiting out there to be turned to good books, so that there really is no need to remake a book that has been done more than conveniently already. A little search on MR would have left him time for doing something that has not been done yet. It only takes 30 secs. Nuff said on this subject. And, crutledge, please go on doing what you do. I like it.

11-25-2008, 05:17 AM	#6
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	People are, of course, very welcome to post whatever (legal) book they wish. However, there is little point in posting a duplicate book which adds no significant benefit to books which are already here. If the poster considers that their work does add something to the original, it would be helpful if they could state what it is for the benefit of downloaders. A quick look at this book, however, reveals a number of things which could be improved: 1. It does not preserve em-dashes; they have been replaced by hyphens (hyphens and dashes are typographically entirely distinct). 2. The sub-title of each chapter (the time and date) has been "absorbed" into the body text of the chapter. 3. No attempt has been made to convert the "in-line" notes to end-notes, and since there is no clear deliniation of notes within the text it's not always clear what's "note" and what's "text". 4. The table of contents title is not centred. Addressing these issues would significantly improve the book.

11-27-2008, 06:14 PM	#7
crutledge eBook FANatic Posts: 18,301 Karma: 16071131 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Alabama, USA Device: HP ipac RX5915 Wife's Kindle	I have tried to address all of the comments made by Harry. There are now end notes, the subtitles have been corrected. I still have not figured out how to apply the emdash inlieu of the hyphen. The book was made from the text download from PG Australia. IAW Harry's instructions, I downloaded the HTML version and deleted the <script> entries at the beginning andthe end. This cured the problem of assigning book title and book author, but when I try to correct the "spoofers" that the element browser picks up, again the whole file is changed. I have used HTML files from others and had no problem. In most cases, I would prefer the HTML, but there is something in the PGA files that I have yet to find. Any further guidance would be appreciated. HTML is possibly the only way to create an emdash. Charlie

11-27-2008, 07:12 PM	#8
Patricia Reader Posts: 11,505 Karma: 8720163 Join Date: May 2007 Location: South Wales, UK Device: Sony PRS-500, PRS-505, Asus EEEpc 4G	Use the book Cleaner files, so that emdashes are preserved when you import the book. And, in the "make Sony Reader Book" pane, click on the "as it is" option for dashes. This should keep them all as they were in your source, crutledge. I hope that this helps.