Despite the fact that American Seashells was a very good book, with much
valuable information in it and far more comprehensive than any other
similar book for any continent except perhaps Europe,  it is
nevertheless not nearly as comprehensive or careful as it could have
been:  Tucker Abbott was a busy man, and he did the research for the
book almost entirely by himself, with less consultation with regional
and familial experts than one might have hoped for.   The result was a
work that was, because of Tucker's vast knowledge and industriousness,
good, but not "great".  Since 1974, a VAST amount of malocological and
conchological work has been done in North America - easily a couple of
thousand new species have been or are currently awaiting description
(McLean in Washington is undertaking a herculean work on west coast
gastropods - the equivalant of Scott and Coan's bivalve treatise, and
the northern Carribean has been a rich area of malocolgical discovery
for the past 20 years or so), and the amount of taxonomic work that has
occured since the early 1970s is, to say the least, nothing short of
amazing.    Therefore, producing a third edition of American Seashells
involves FAR more than an "update" - more like a thorough re-write!!

It is my understanding that the process is being slowed down because for
some reason Dr. Harasewych  (who is certainly ***splendidly*** qualified
to do this work, and by all accounts a meticulous worker)  is -
according to what i have heard so far: hopefully it will change, or
perhaps i have it all wrong? -  following Tucker's example of making the
task essentially a one-man show.  He is not consulting extensively with
regional experts, and has turned down several offers of assistance with
the fauna of specific areas: for example a friend of mine who is does
excellent drawings of foraminifera and other natural objects, offered to
draw all the interiors of the bivalve species of the N.E.  North
American region - muscle attachments and palliel sinuses, as well as
detailed hinge sketches - things which are often extremely difficult to
show clearly in photographs.   She was not asking anything for her
efforts, but was nevertheless turned down flatly - and i have heard a
couple of similar stories.   For this reason, and because the good Dr.
is still very busy on a variety of other projects,  do not expect a
Third Edition any time soon.    Because of the great care the man takes
in approaching publications, especially one of this importance and
magnitude,   the final draft will be a good, scholarly work: a benchmark
that will no doubt stand for at least another quarter century - but it
will not be finished within the next half decade.  For the time being,
the 2nd Edition, supplemented by Scott and Coan, McLean's upcoming work,
a trietise on the Polyplacophora of the west coast awaiting immanant
publication, and some excellent papers on the northern Carribean area
(such as the Bahamas), will have to do.

For anyone interested in the Malocolgical fauna of my neck of the woods
(Gulf of Maine to the Canadian Basin in the Arctic), even Harasewych's
work is likely to fall quite short of what is actually nessessary,
especially in the Turridae and Buccindae, which are at the moment a
complete nightmare -  for the Turridae, i have seen about 60 species so
far (not bad for a total shell-bearing fauna of under 500 species!), but
i can only match about 15 of these with the names of Turridae supposedly
found here, as found in the literature - the other 45, so far as i can
see, remain a mystery!!!  So far as Buccindae are concerned, questions
remain regarding about a third of the species found in the literature,
and some of the bivalve families are equally in sad shape, although the
work of Anders Waren is helping considerably in this area, as well as
with the little known deep-water fauna that is **extremely** scantily
represented in Canadian collections.  Much of the literature is riddled
with errors, with much of the best of it coming ironically from outside
the country (Woods Hole and Europe).  That said, none of my
observations, including (most probably) new species,  are likely to be
published before a Third Edition, so it will be as if they don't exist,
since unpublished work in science is in many ways absolutely invisible
and even when considered is usually set aside, since only peer-reviewed
papers can be regarded as reliable.   I should imagine there are also
**many** thousands of useful pieces of information such as the ones in
my "to be published some day, hopefully, if i ever get my academic act
together again......." pile, all over the continent - we have a VERY
long way to go before a truly comprehensive "American Seashells" can
finally be produced!!

From the Great now melting North,
ross.