Mike
The Osprey Oddities 'Advent Calendar' December 9
December 9, 2009 12:00 AM
The hexalogy, and other long running mini-series
Throughout our time producing our books we have encountered situations where the restraints of our series mean that we simply cannot come anywhere near to covering all the material we would like within 48 or 64 pages. This has meant that from time to time we issue 'sequels' dealing with slightly different aspects of history. These sequels are indicated by numbers after the titles, which remain the same as the original book and are then defined by their subtitle.
A usual example is the distinguishing between a book that looks at Infantry and one that looks at Cavalry.
Over the years there have been a number of books to receive these sequels, but a surprising number have gone way past that, developing into 4 or 5 book series. In fact, there is actually one series of books that got 6 different titles in it - rendering it an hexalogy (at least according to Wikipedia...I had to look that term up!)
Back in May 2005 we released the first book in Ron Field's epic coverage of the Confederate Army, MAA 423 The Confederate Army 1861-65: South Carolina and Mississippi. This was followed by:
MAA 426 The Confederate Army 1861-65 (2): Florida, Alabama and Georgia
MAA 430 The Confederate Army 1861-65 (3): Louisiana and Texas
MAA 435 The Confederate Army 1861-65 (4): Virginia and Arkansas
MAA 441 The Confederate Army 1861-65 (5): Tennessee and North Carolina
MAA 446 The Confederate Army 1861-65 (6): Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland
Phew! Talk about an exhaustive approach!
While researching this particular post, I discovered that Osprey had more than one pentalogy in our backlist. In fact, five sets of books have reached the 5 book mark:
Men-at Arms Napoleon's German Allies
Men-at-Arms American Civil War Armies
Men-at-Arms Romes Enemies
Men-at- Arms Louis XV's Army
The German Army 1939-45
COMMENTS
Napoleon's German allies unfortunately was never completed and in my opinion, it could have been better, research and illustration wise. i hope the series will respawn, dealing with each German minor separately, preferably starting off with the much demanded book on Württemberg. ;-) the book on Hanoverian Armies by Hofschröer is the only one i really like. the book on the Brunswickers is incomplete too.
the books on American Civil war Armies have been partially rendered obsolete by Ron Field's hexalogy, and i hope a similar series on the Union Army will spawn eventually.
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