Parece que a edição com a referência "família ariana" foi revisada por Rev. E. E. Hale, enquanto o Barnes & A edição nobre foi editada por Charles Martin e George Stade. De relance, parece-me que a edição da B & N teve elementos de som racista (pelo menos para ouvidos americanos) removidos ou alterados. Um pouco engraçado já que tanto Thomas Bulfinch quanto o Rev. Hale eram abolicionistas (antiescravidão).
da página do Wiki no Rev. Edward Everett Hale:
Combining a forceful personality, organizing genius, and liberal practical theology, Hale was active in raising the tone of American life for half a century. He had a deep interest in the anti-slavery movement (especially in Kansas), as well as popular education (involving himself especially with the Chautauqua adult-education movement), and the working-man's home.
He published a wide variety of works in fiction, history and biography. He used his writings and the two magazines he founded, Old and New (1870–75) and Lend a Hand (1886–97), to advance a number of social reforms, including religious tolerance, the abolition of slavery and wider education.
da Introdução de Charles Martin na edição B & N:
Bulfinch did not appear to be much concerned with any of the social reform movements of his time. Reverend Peabody remarks that “one of those who knew him most intimately,” said that he was “deeply interested in the Anti-slavery movement, in its early period of difficulty and discouragement.” At that time, he associated with William Lloyd Garrison, the leader of the abolitionists in Boston.
Por que todas as revisões editoriais? De acordo com Charles Martin:
Bulfinch himself has his quirks and limitations. Unlike Whitman and Longfellow, he is not a great writer: At his best, as in most of The Age of Fable, he is a very good rewriter. He is sometimes prissy or didactic, and he suffers today from that previously mentioned subservience to his society’s desire to avoid anything “offensive to pure taste and good morals.” Nevertheless, Bulfinch’s instincts for narrative are usually clear and sharp, and for the last century and a half, readers have been putting themselves in his hands, confident that soon enough they will be re-imagining their lives in the terms of these very old stories that are, somehow, still new to us.