Basil reader???

So nobody at New York magazine ever heard of a basal reader? And a Google search on "basil reader" elicits five pages of results, including several from school-district sites (or perhaps it should be "sights"? or "cites"?). New York has made a correction for its on-line version, but the original "basil reader" is out there (or should it be "their"? or "they're"?) in cached (or should it be "cashed"?) form. There's nothing wrong with spelling disability; but why do these people become proofreaders and copy editors?