Max Abraham is well known for his electromagnetic mass theory, and his book Theorie der Elektrizität is said to be read widely around 1900. I am trying to find this book, but the editions look like a hell.
It is a two volume book. Its first volume was a separate book written by Föppl, and it was already published. Then, when Abraham's book was published, Föppl's book was merged as the volume 1 of that two-volume book.
Weirdly, it looks like these books have more than 15 editions.
And more weirdly, although it was very popular once upon a time, it has never been translated into English.
And more weirdly, most editions cannot be found in catalogs, such as worldcat.org.
And more weirdly, I found another book, which is one volume only, written by Max Abraham and Richard Becker, and translated by John Dougal. I don't know who is Becker, but in the preface it says this edition is published after Max Abraham's death, and he says "although I kept many passages, some fairly extensive alterations have been made...".
I am really lost. How dare he can take a book, after the author dies, make extensive alterations, etc. What is the point?
Does anybody know the weird story of these books?
