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Originally Posted by issybird
I'll give you an example.
Early on, Bacon talked about how the Great War caused the industrialization of Halifax and cited (his only citation) the Willis and Bates company, which he said manufactured doughboy-style helmets because it had previously made metal lampshades with a similar shape.
This stopped me in my tracks, as it made no sense. Metal lampshades? Lampshades are designed to let light through! Moreover, I'm familiar with the shape of the doughboy helmets and they look like no lampshade I've ever seen. So I googled Willis and Bates.
Guess what? The company, which did manufacture lanterns in both world wars, was located in Halifax, England, not Halifax, Canada. This is where I would have stopped reading, had it not been for the NLBC.
For all we've criticized him for the stuff he lifted from other authors, it's at least more accurate than the stuff he came up with on his own.
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OK, that's a bad error, but understandable. The company did make lamps, though, so the thing that triggered your research wasn't an error.
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Originally Posted by Bookpossum
Just two examples of Bacon's crass approach to the whole thing:
1. In his lead-up to the terrible event itself, describing one of the families that was to be affected, he wrote "With fourteen kids, the milking cow in the backyard wasn't for show-and-tell". I don't know whether he thought he was being funny in saying this, but it jars badly.
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Didn't jar me at all. I don't see the problem.
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2. In one of his later chapters devoted to the exploits of Joseph Barss, we are told: "He also sang in the First Congregational Church under the leadership of Lloyd C Douglas, who would go on to write The Robe, which sold 2 million copies and became a movie starring Richard Burton.
When reading about the Halifax explosion, I really needed to know that fascinating piece of information!
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That is the sort of thing I LOVE: quirky little connections. Now, if he went on to summarize
The Robe, or list the rest of the cast, or say that Burton was married to Elizabeth Taylor, that would have been too much of a digression. But as is? Fine.
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Originally Posted by issybird
Here's one I "liked:"
"...one day the Prince of Wales, who would become King Edward VIII before abdicating the throne to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson..."
Honestly, someone who doesn't know that about the Duke of Windsor (is there anyone?) isn't interested and has no need to know in this context.
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What's wrong with giving context so the readers know WHICH Prince of Wales was holding that title at the time?