I enjoyed your article on the The Americans. I will join the discussion with you about the "academic points" that you raised on page four of part two. As you have noted, the Steidl press release and catalogue have made some errors. It bothers me to see the confusion and mythology about the book being perpetuated through statements from the publisher of the "definitive" edition. Nearly every edition has variant croppings but contrary to your text and the Steidl texts there have actually been three variant negatives used through the history of the publication of the book.

The first time a variant negative was used was for the 1968, 1969 and 1978 editions when plate number 41, 'Luncheonette - Butte, Montana' was printed from a different negative. Then in all subsequent editions beginning with the 1985 edition plate 41 was printed from the original negative but with varying croppings. Also, as you noted, plate 50 'Assembly line - Detroit' was printed from a variant negative beginning with the 1978 edition. The other variant negative used was for plate 27 'Metropolitan Life Insurance Building - New York City' but beginning with the 1985 edition, not beginning with the Steidl edition. Only the cropping has changed. Look for the arches visible at the left above the magazine rack. You will only find them beginning with the 1985 edition and not in the earlier editions.

I would also like to point out that your suggestion on page six of part two that the photo critics were not on the ball about 'The Americans' because it was not listed in the "Books of the Year" article in the '1959 Popular Photography Annual' is really off base. The photography annuals were always issued in the November of the year before the date printed in the title and the lead time for the publication was at least a couple of months so the closing of the 1959 annual would have been at the end of the summer of 1958. The French edition of the book was supposedly printed May 15th, 1958 but it appears that the book was not actually distributed until the fall of 1958. It is unlikely that many French language and French-published books would be reviewed in the U.S. popular photography press. In fact, the "Books of the Year" article in 'Photography Annual 1961' published in late 1960 does include 'The Americans' 1959 Grove Press edition as "the most controversial photographic book of the year." Now you may ask, why in 1960? The reason is that the book, despite the 1959 date printed on the copyright page, was not actually issued until January of 1960 (This date shows up on the official publication records in the Grove Press Archive).

Finally, contrary to nearly all of the writing about 'The Americans' in the literature to the present, the book was not reviled by everyone when it was first published. That has been exaggerated due to the virulence by which the photographic press railed against it. There were supporters of the book from the very beginning and the "Books of the Year" article acknowledged them as we see in the following excerpt: "[The Americans was] accused by some of being a scathing attack on America, admired and defended by others for its strong uncompromising viewpoint, few would deny that its 83 photographs were the work of a photojournalist with a definite point of view and the ability to effectively express it with his camera."