The Truth About Me & The Princess
Friday, June 10, 2011 at 11:32AM 
Finally, the truth of my relationship with the Princess Lamballe.
Well, right off the bat, I must admit we can’t have known each other terribly well. She was a contemporary of Marie Antoinette. She died in 1792. But I must be quite the expert on her life and death. Because, according to just about every online bookseller on the planet (unless I’ve corrected the listing and it hasn’t yet reverted) I edited her secret memoirs. Says so right there on the Amazon page. Edited by Catherine Ryan Hyde.
Now, if you look at the cover, it tells a slightly different story. It says it was edited by Catherine Hyde. I guess I should be flattered. My name is familiar enough that someone made the substitution without even realizing the little trick their brain played on them.
I would like to take a moment to point out that the original copyright on this book is dated 1901. 1901. That means I would be 110 years old. If I had edited that memoir in the year I was born. Granted, I’m pretty old. And I was a precocious child. But neither is quite such an extreme situation.
I’ve spent a lot of time making corrections. Filling out online forms for booksellers all over the world. Trouble is, they’re not making it up on their own. They’re getting it from some centralized listing, and apparently I don’t understand book distribution well enough to find my way to the roots. I definitely had it fixed on Amazon. But then yesterday I was searching through a list of my books on Amazon, and there was The Princess. In all her glory. Edited by yours truly.
I’m going to stop fighting this. I’m going to embrace it. I’ve had a more interesting life than you realized. I hold my age better than you thought possible. I am apparently an expert on the life of the Princess Lamballe. (It says here. And There. And there.) And that may as well be a source of pride.
I just hope none of my readers see those listings and think, “Ah! Catherine has a new one! Something I don’t have!” No, fortunately I have books newer than 1901.
Go ahead, ask me about The Princess. Ask me anything. Apparently, I wrote the book on that.
Catherine
Sent this email this morning. We'll see how it goes. I'll keep you posted.
To whom it may concern at University of the Pacific Press,
My name is Catherine Ryan Hyde, and I am indeed an author. So I guess I can see how the mixup got started. But I wasn't even born until 1955. And I did not edit the memoirs of the Princess Lamballe. I've corrected the error at every level I can, but the error exists somewhere I'm not reaching, and it replicates. Undoubtedly you know where the original error is located. Maybe you can do better than I've done? You couldn't do much worse.
My blog post this morning should provide all the background you need:
[link]
Thank you,
Catherine Ryan Hyde
Reader Comments (7)
Ha! This is hilarious. Congratulations on your apparent expertise. ;)
Thank you. I am indeed a font of apparent expertise, so I proudly accept your congratulations.
Hilarious. Definitely didn't know you had such an impressive grasp of history....and time travel.
You've underestimated my abilities. Didn't I make a California avocado appear on 42nd Street in Manhattan?
Does this mean you get her royalties?
I love the idea of a time travel novel written when you were time-traveling. Could make a nice plot device. Or a Dr. Who episode. This is hilarious.
You know, I was going to make that suggestion when the publisher gets back to me. If you can fix it, fine. If not, I'm quite happy with the editor's cut.
Thank you for being inspirational, and funny today. Will miss you at the Conference. Pay it Forward. A concept that came straight from your heart. More necessary now than ever. And thank you for the blog posts too. I admire you very much.