(06-26-2015, 05:49 AM)jhc7 Wrote: I have the early Bear guides, 1980-82-85. My 1982 guide lists as the 8th guide. My first one was 1980. I decided to get one or two from the 70's, but, they don't seem to exist. My 1980 guide should be number 7. That means the guides would go back to the mid to early 70's. I have looked carefully and had my son (he's better on the computer) take a good look and neither of us have been able to go back further than the 1980 guide book. Could it be that John actually started at number 7 and that there are no 1 through 6 books? If anyone has or knows about the existence of these lost books, please comment.
It would be very interesting if they don't really exist. Just saying!!
Let me attempt to clarify. Here's more information than anyone but my mother would ever want to know.
In August 1974, I self-published an 80-page typewritten monograph devoted almost entirely to earning distance degrees from the University of London, Sales were great so in 1975, I expanded it to include thirteen US schools with non-resident programs. Red cover, and called "College Degrees by Mail."
Over the next five years, there were fourteen more printings, each one revised and expanded over the previous one. They were all called "College Degrees by Mail," and the covers were red, blue, green, and brown. .
In 1981, I decided to change the title (to "Bear's Guide to Non-Traditional College Degrees," and to introduce the concept of an edition number. But what edition number? Logically, I thought, it could be anything from 2nd to 17th, since there had been fifteen separate printings till then. I compromised on a number in the middle, 7th edition, purple cover.
Soon after that, Ten Speed Press (later to become a division of Random House) took it over. Because they fancied themselves masters of titling ("What Color is Your Parachute" has sold over 10 million copies), they retitled it, "How to Get the Degree You Want." That was the 8th edition, 1982.
It became (and stayed) Bear's Guide (or Bears' Guide or Bears Guide) thereafter, through the 16th edition. Ten Speed also created and published a separate series called "College Degrees by Mail and Modem" [or "Internet"], which went through ten editions. There were also three specialized books devoted just to MBAs, Computer Science degrees and Education degrees. And the "Non-Traditional Higher Education" book published by Dutton was a one-shot deal, unrelated to any of the above.
