Now, I’m fairly certain Athanasius of Alexandria didn’t have access to CreateSpace, or even an Amazon Prime account.He did write the classic Life of Antony (or Anthony), which I took the opportunity to read recently.I’m not going to go into this life with great detail—Athanasius does that, in as far as he can—but the reading of this book raised the perils not only of demons but of easy self-publication.As usual, there’s a story behind it.Antony was famous for being an early monk who fought demons so effectively that they feared him.His story wasn’t written in English, seeing that the language had not yet evolved.When I tried to find an affordable copy that I could access quickly, I found the edition pictured here.It was fairly obviously a conversion, likely from a PDF (based on my own so doing, in the line of duty).A minimal cover was applied and it was offered cheaply on said Amazon (with free shipping).
Those who work in publishing know how to spot a print-on-demand title.That means the book is printed when it’s ordered, or, printed a few copies at a time so that the overhead of offset printing (how books were traditionally made) can be avoided.Self-publishers can name themselves a press—this one Beloved Publishing—and anything in the public domain can be reproduced and sold to rubes like me.When a scholar, erstwhile or while, approaches a book s/he wants to know certain facts about it.Who was the translator?What was the original language?When was it written?Who was (in this case) Athanasius?Some of this I knew simply by dint of studying ancient texts for most of my adult life and having attended and taught in seminaries.Still, an introduction of some sort would have been appreciated.
This edition appealed to me because the Life on Antony is a short book.Most mainstream publishers bulk books like these up with hefty introductions and notes and charge four times as much for it.They usually put in other works too, since this one weighs in at less than a hundred pages, even with loose typesetting.Sometimes you just want the contents, with minimal introduction.So let it be with Antony.Or so I thought.This edition, which has a few quirks, contained Athanasius in English, which is what I needed.The translator remains unknown.It is print-on-demand.It is also affordable.In case any readers of this blog wonder why I sometimes tend not to engage with the contents of the books I review, I would point out that this is what my own books are for. A guy has to try to make a buck somehow, now and again.(Antony forgive me!)
