Q. A book in my bibliography is an extended interview with philosopher Jean-François Lyotard done by an editor, Jean-Loup Thébaud. The title page identifies the authors as Lyotard and Thébaud (in that order), but the Library of Congress CIP data lists only Lyotard on the main card. The book is translated from the French edition. According to WorldCat the first edition (1979) is titled Au Juste: Conversations, but a later (2006) edition is simply titled Au Juste, and WorldCat lists both Lyotard and Thébaud as authors for both French editions. How should I cite this work in my text and bibliography and why?
A. Cite whichever edition you consulted for your work, because documenting your sources is the primary purpose of providing citations. Or, if you are merely including the book as recommended reading, cite it in the form (or forms) your readers can locate most easily, because directing readers to sources is another purpose of citing. If the latter involves adding “Sometimes cataloged under both Lyotard and Thébaud” or “First published in French as . . .” to the end of the citation, there’s nothing wrong with that.