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     This is not part of the original book.

     This is the editor's narrative about some of the early beginnings of the "Lest We Forget" typing project.

     My intent was to produce a text that was rather close to being a "true" copy of Lionel's book. After typing a few pages, I decided to "improve" it by changing all the state names and abbreviations to the modern postal abbreviations, such as TX for Texas. After typing a few pages this way I realized that I was losing two important features. First, I was losing Lionel's wording and his flavor of the book, and second, I was making it harder to proofread.

     I had used the "Courier" type font from the start. Now I realized that if I typed word for word, line for line, I could make the proofreading much easier since each line I typed would have the same number of characters as the original, and would end the same way. For example, if the second line were two characters longer than the first, then it should end that way in my typed copy. This indeed proved to be most helpful. I have caught many errors by simply seeing that a line was one character too long or too short. This method only catches my errors, since I am comparing what I type to the original book. However, I put five or six errors per page into the book when I type it, so catching these errors is quite important. I estimate that there is about one error per two pages left in the book that I cannot catch.

     I should point out the Lionel's original book actually has very few errors in it. There are about one or two errors per page, and although that may seem like a lot, most are very minor. It must be remembered that the book was printed from a typescript, using photographic methods. It was never professionally typeset. So what we have here is a very carefully typed first or second draft, I must presume. I also believe that many small errors, when caught, were simply left to stand, rather than risking marring the pages with erasures or whiteout. I have the greatest respect for Lionel's work.

     In the modern computer age, when someone is typing on a word processor, or in my case, a text editor (much more primitive), any error, when caught, should be addressed immediately. It is almost impossible to catch an error a second time if it is allowed to stand without marking it in some way. I correct on the spot all of my own errors that I catch. If I notice an error in the original, I treat it one of three different ways. First, if it is only typographical, such as a repeated letter, I simply correct it without making any notation. Second, if the error is substantial, such as a year date with only three numerals, I put it in red. I cannot be certain what it was supposed to be. Third, if I suspect an error but don't know for certain that it is an error or not, such as an unusual spelling for a name, I put that in red also.

     After typing up a page, I save the file, and then save the file again under a different name. I call the second file the "corrected" version. Lionel himself made some corrections to the book after the first publication, and these corrections have been kindly provided by his daughter, Sandra M. Gray. I apply these corrections to the "corrected" version. I put Lionel's corrections in green. If he has corrected something that I had no way of knowing was wrong, I go back to the first file, and put the material that Lionel had later corrected in red. So red might mean an error I suspected, or an error that Lionel had been able to correct. Most of Lionel's corrections are of the substantial kind, such as learning better information about who someone married. Sometimes he provided a correction to a typographical error, but this is not as often.

     This is written very early on Saturday morning, September 11, 2004. At this stage, 53 of Lionel's pages have been typed since Wednesday, May 26, 2004. I rather enjoy this project. It seems meaningful.