Abott's Am. Seashells was an extremely ambitious undertaking, and the
work that came out in 1974 remains the only all-round compilation of
marine molluscs (excluding Cephalopods) for the whole of North America.
That said, he did not consult very  extensively with regional experts -
and the taxonomy of many groups (such as northern Oenopotinae (totally
hopeless!!!)) remain a taxonomic mess to this date, let alone back then.
 So, the mistakes are more than a few, and one must be careful in using
this book.  Further muddying the waters, the final editing & proofing
was done in a hurry apparently, resulting in some transposed photographs
 and the like.   In general, it is a wonderful work, but must be taken
with a few grains of salt nevertheless!

Edition 3 is being prepared by one of the very few people that could
tackle such a huge, technically challenging undertaking - Dr. Jerry
Harasewych of the Smithsonian.  It is to be hoped that he will take full
advantage of the expertise of such people as Dr. Mclean in Washington,
Harry Lee in Florida, and those bivalve wizards over in California whose
names if can't recall.  I offered my limited help for E. Canada, but i
guess i need to go back to school or at least get off my keester and
actually publish some stuff  before people take me seriously.....sigh!

From the land of the yo-yo temperatures,
Ross M.