Hello, all...I'm a new subscriber but have yet to introduce myself...I'll get around to that sometime this weekend.
Anyway, on the question of the watermark, I have found a similar faint portion of text in my May 1991, Little, Brown edition of
Catcher, in the same spot Shandy describes; although in my case a different passage appears. What I find is a fragment of the exchange between Holden and Phoebe at the bottom of page 169, reading:
"One thing? One thing I like a lot you mean?" I asked her.
She didn't answer me, though. She was in a cock-
eyed position way the hell over the other side of the (end of page)
Does it mean anything? I doubt it. Yet, I am one of those Beatles fans who for some time thought that Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover and tracks are loaded with clues as to Paul's untimely death by automobile accident.
It would be very interesting to see what portions of text others find in their copies. By the way, the words are much easier to read when looked at with the page held nearly at eye-level, parallel to the ground, much like the watermarks on ugly foreign currency.
Judd Bagley
>From: "Shandy R. Casteel"
>
>I have looked at several copies of the May 1991 printing of the paperback
>edition by Little, Brown and Company and in two of them have noticed what
>appears to be watermarked text on the last blank page. On one of them it
>appears at the top of the page facing the last page of text in the novel. In
>the second book, two sentences appear at the bottom of the back of the blank
>page. While I can make out nothing of what the words say, it is my theory
>that these are the result of the printing and or storage of the book. The
>pulp is not of the highest quality, and maybe during the actual printing
>process the blank page that was added may have had traces of previous pages
>left on it. The "watermark" may also be a result of the book just sitting
>around or the very nature of reading it, portions of the type bleeding
>through the thin paper.
>
>Of course, these are just a lurkers thoughts, and maybe my head has been
>clouded by watching "The Wizard of Oz" while playing "Darkside of the Moon"
>one to many times.
>
>- Shandy
>
>-
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