A Switch Up On Summer Switch

 

Author, screenwriter and composer Mary Rogers (1931 - 2014) published three books for young readers with cover designs created by Edward Gorey. Collectively known as the Andrews trilogy, the stories follow the magical adventures of the Andrews family. 

The trilogy includes Freaky Friday (1972), A Billion for Boris (1974), and Summer Switch (1982). Freaky Friday was turned into a successful movie in 2003. The covers designed by Edward Gorey are colorful, lively, and invite the potential reader to pick them up. Like the Bellairs book series, the Andrews trilogy is much beloved series by readers of a certain age who fondly remember the stories, and especially the Gorey covers. 

Recently, a friend let me know that he acquired an unrecorded early cover variant for Summer Switch. At first glance the difference appears to just be the background color, but on closer inspection it can be seen that the name of the summer camp on the boy's t-shirt has been changed.

Camp Soonawissakit is the name of the camp as it appears in both printings of the book. It can be assumed that Edward Gorey misread or didn't double check the name of the camp in the manuscript and that the art directors and editors didn't catch the mistake until the book was actually in print. Unfortunately, the original artwork is unknown at this point, so it cannot be checked to see if Gorey himself changed the camp name or (more likely) someone at the published made the correction.

Whoever caught the mistake, the color of the book was also changed to bright green after the initial printing. These kind of printing variants are what keeps book collectors searching used & rare bookstores and on-line sellers for that rare volume to add to their collections.