LETTER- Karon's Mitford's a fictional town

For two years in a row, and after I emailed you last year to bring it to your attention (to no avail), you have insulted a fine novelist living in our midst.

In your Annual Manual for 2008, you listed Jan Karon among local authors as having written the "Jessica Mitford series." You then repeated this in 2009.

There is a writer named Jessica Mitford who has written a series, but Jan Karon of Esmont is the author of a series taking place in a mythical town called Mitford, and her books have been best-sellers.

It shocks and appalls me that you would make such a blunder and repeat it a year later. Why haven't you written about Ms. Karon, instead of publishing misinformation about her? At least look at her website, mitfordbooks.com.

As I said last year, you owe Ms. Karon an apology.

Jerry W. Ham
Richmond

Editor's note: While I can find no record of having received your email, a check of our records indicates that the error is even worse than you alleged, as we've been making it for at least three years, having run a correction back in 2007– indeed no avail. Until now. We've made the fix in the online version of our Annual Manual, changed our Annual Manual editing system, and hereby offer Karon our humble apology. (And all this in the wake of running a profile of the author back in 2002.) 

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