Note on a. Stael-Holstein's "double publication".

• Author: Qilong, Wang
• Position: Baron A. von Stael-Holstein's works

In the current academic climate, in which scholars regularly publish similar or nearly identical material in several different forms and venues, the case of a past scholar's inadvertent "double publication" and his reaction to it can be instructive. Baron A. von Stael-Holstein (1877-1937), a scholar of Tibetology and Buddhology, is the person in question. In Stael-Holstein's works we find two papers that are quite similar in contents and were published at almost the same time:

1. "On Two Tibetan Pictures Representing Some of the Spiritual Ancestors of the Dalai-Lama and of the Panchen Lama," Bulletin of the National Library of Peiping (BNLP) 6 (1932) 150-127, with two plates.

2. "Notes on Two Lama Paintings," Journal of the American Oriental Society (JAOS) 52 (1932) 338-49, with two plates.

The story of this double publication is contained in the correspondence of Stael-Holstein, now preserved in the Harvard-Yenching Library.

On December 10th 1932 Horace H. F. Jayne, the editor of the short-lived journal Eastern Art, wrote from Philadelphia to Stael-Holstein in China to inform him that, as Eastern Art was being discontinued and could not publish his paper, he had forwarded it to JAOS.

Dear Baron: I wish to acknowledge your letter of October 22nd in which you enclose your check for 12.00 to cover the expense of returning your manuscript. I am extremely sorry that there has been so much delay in this matter but we have not been able to see at all clearly the means for continuing Eastern Art and on the table it seemed wisest to tell you definitely that it was not appearing since Sickman thought you had some other possibility for it. I had thought that perhaps Norman Brown could use it in the Journal of the American Oriental Society and turned it over to him for consideration. I am asking him to return it directly to you and giving him the check that you so kindly enclosed to cover expenses. Yours Sincerely [Sig] Horace H. F. Jayne On December 28th Jayne telegraphed Stael-Holstein to request his authorization for JAOS to publish his "Notes on Two Lama Paintings." As soon as Stael-Holstein received the telegram, he immediately replied by telegram asking Jayne to inform JAOS of his negative answer because the paper had been published in another journal. Because of the delays in communication at that period, Stael-Holstein did not get Jayne's December 10th letter before receiving his telegram of December 28th, by which time the revised paper had already been published in BNEP, Peking. At this point he telegraphed Jayne to stop the JAOS publication. But Jayne had already had it published without Stael-Holstein's authorization. And it was already too late, on receiving the Journal in February 1933, for the author to correct this "double publication."

Stael-Holstein was very disturbed...