File talk:Poe TheNarrativeOfArthurGordonPymOfNantucket title.jpg

We discussed this image briefly on the Wikipedia talk page for The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. This cover is apparently a fake or a hoax; it is NOT the actual cover. That may affect copyright as it almost certainly is a recent home-made reproduction. If someone can find the actual cover, it would be great to upload it to replace this fake. In the meantime, I'm not sure it should be used on any wiki project. --Midnightdreary 15:54, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

• Would it make a difference if the image were tagged a reproduction? Evrik 16:48, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

I'm just gonna copy and paste here what I put on the en.wikipedia talk page for this - The most obvious evidence that this is fake: the smaller, all capital text is way too close together. This is called kerning or tracking and is often used today in the digital desktop printing world. But it would not have been very plausible on the early 19th century standard moveable lead-block typesetting when this was printed in 1838. To make it happen, they would have to shave their lead blocks, making them forever ruined and necessitating a new purchase of the font they already owned. The other evidence I have is, well, my word - I've seen the original, and this is not it. This doesn't even look like a piece of paper, never mind one that is over 150 years old (where's the wear and tear?). Not to cause trouble, but it's worthwhile to be accurate, don't you think?

Tagging it as a reproduction is a good start, but not sure why anyone would want to illustrate a legitimate article with a faked cover some dude made on MS Word or whatever. Can anyone translate "fake" or "reproduction" for the French users? --Midnightdreary 17:25, 12 July 2007 (UTC)