What at first seems like a reasonably simple question turns out to be one of those deceptively difficult ones, like "What is knowledge?" or "Can cats secretly talk?"-one that even a lifetime of study can never fully answer.
Bibliophilia, taken as a separate pursuit from the mere love of reading, which it may accompany, is concerned with all aspects of books; not just their contents. Much study is given among bibliophiles to the materials and construction of books, and publishing history also plays a great part; serious collectors pore over every detail, from subject to publisher to editor to writer to illustrator. What the illustrator commonly ate for breakfast is considered a fairly relevant detail, among the more hardened cases. And then, there are the myriad questions related to any particular copy-is it a pristine one, still looking absolutely new, in a fresh, glossy, clean wrapper entirely free of even the slightest little tear, despite its great age, and inscribed by the author to his favorite niece (who happens to be the model for the heroine of the story contained in its thick, creamy pages??) Or is it an agreeably raggedy-looking old thing, published by the book club a century later--and to use bibliophile's jargon, "spine ends bumped,with chipped corners, cocked, hinges cracked and some foxing?" To those of us who have always collected books in order to read them, the two really are scarcely worth telling apart, so long as they contain the same words in the same order. To a book collector, however, the difference is as vast as that between the Hope Diamond and some icky thing the cat dragged in.
All this may sound obvious to you pros out there, but it is a point that beginning collectors tend to struggle with--and this writer is no exception, despite a lifetime of being derided for fussiness in other areas. Well, on to business.
Let's begin with a book randomly selected
from our own unnecessarily large collection: a nice looking book on the
whole, in a protective cover. (The reliably recommended Highsmith
company of Wisconsin, by the way, is a library supplier where you can obtain these handy dustjacket protectors at a good price and in small quantities.)
Much of the information you'll need for identifying a first edition is contained on the copyright page, which can be found on the reverse side of the title page.
The number series found on the copyright page of many modern books is a valuable clue. Unfortunately, the subject volume lacks this handy feature. When the number "1" is present, that is an excellent sign and really almost always means a first printing. Irritatingly, however, certain publishers such as Random House (in certain years) omit the "1" and begin, inexplicably, with "2"-- even on the first printing. (Grrrr!) This particular book has no number series--but--
If you're lucky, you will see the generally credible words, "First Printing." (There they are! Hooray!) A first printing means the first printing of the first edition, so that when you see those words your research is--perhaps--over. The words "first edition" and "first printing" are often used more or less interchangeably in the book world, and really shouldn't be. A printing is a single print run. An edition refers to the whole set of plates. When any corrections or amendments are made to the original plates, then you have a second edition. If a dozen separate printings are made off the first set of plates, though, only those copies from the very first printing are of significant value-and this is true, generally speaking, even of highly collectible books. You may have the twelfth printing of the first edition, but that doesn't mean you have a "true first". Almost always, it is only the very first printing that has collectible value.
The agreeable term "First Printing", however, can also be found occasionally in a modern book club edition, in which case the book club will have just ordered some immense number of copies right off the first print run.
Oh
no! Note this worrying message from the Book-of-the-Month-Club! It may mean
that this is a book club edition, printed in the zillions and therefore
utterly without value; or it may mean that Mr. Jones was fortunate enough
to have secured an agreement with the BOMC in advance of the original
trade publication of his novel. In these cases, you must check out the dustjacket,
if present. Book club editions, commonly, do not have a price on the inner
flaps of the dustjacket. But our copy has the price… a good sign!
Also, you'll find that book club editions are commonly marked with a blind stamp--that's a small embossed dot or square or other recessed mark on the lower right corner of the back cover. There are probably exceptions to this (there always seem to be!), but blind stamps seem to be found only on book club editions. No blind stamp here … excellent.
(Personally, I find book club editions make great reading copies, and you don't have to feel so guilty when you take them into the bathtub.)
It's a good bet that this is, in fact, a genuine first edition!! Worth, according to comparisons from the various search services such as Advanced Book Exchange, around $15-$20 in this condition.
The real trouble is that even today, there are no standards by which all publishers routinely identify first editions-and there are immense numbers of publishers. Not to mention which, publishing houses tend to change their methods. And exceptions are made constantly. Even experts are continually fooled as to the authenticity of various books purported to be "firsts."
The best way to learn how to identify first editions is to handle a lot of books with a view to learning how to do so. There are several excellent basic books commonly used by experts, notably: Collected Books : The Guide to Values by Allen Ahearn and Patricia Ahearn; all of the books written by the esteemed bookdealers Ahearn are highly regarded among collectors. Also excellent, is First Editions : A Guide to Identification by Zempel and Verkler. Finally, the Pocket Guide to the Identification of First Editions by Bill McBride is a portable reference. All are highly recommended as an introduction into the mysteries. Also recommended: the murder mysteries by John Dunning, Booked to Die and The Bookman's Wake. These feature the detective Cliff Janeway, a bibliophile (and book dealer) whose descriptions of book collecting are fun to read and full of useful details.
Beginning collectors, note well, a vast percentage of the books described by dealers on such search engines as Bibliofind and ABE are wrongly described. Careful study will reveal that many, many dealers, in some cases more than half the dealers describing a given title, have not bothered to figure out what the earliest printing was, but instead merely pop the magic words "first edition" into their listings, either out of unwarranted optimism or mere laziness-or, in an attempt to defraud a credulous public. Should collectors do the necessary homework, it will no longer pay these lazy bums to be so sloppy.
Happy hunting, from the staff of the Popula Reference Library.
Links of interest to book collectors
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