Q. I’m trying to write a footnote for a book that has been revised and enlarged. How do I cite the reviser? This is what the author has currently provided: James Boswell, Life of Johnson, ed. George Birkbeck Hill, revised by L. F. Powell, rev. ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1934–64), 2:365. I feel that if I include Powell it should be abbreviated somehow—“rev. by” or something. Should I treat him like an editor instead?
A. Yes, you can change “revised by” to ed. or rev. (not rev. by) to match the ed. in front of George Hill’s name. And it would make sense to place the fact of its being a revised edition (rev. ed.) before the name of the revision editor so that the phrases together mean “the revised edition was edited by L. F. Powell”: James Boswell, Life of Johnson, ed. George Birkbeck Hill, rev. ed., ed. L. F. Powell . . .