first editions

[soulflyseanb]

how can you tell what edition a book is? is there something in the publishing notes that indicates the printing date? please help.

 

[Ashlea]

The copyright page with all the publisher info on it will tell you if it is a 1st. There should be a date there, too. If you have something that looks like this:

3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

It would be a 2nd edition. They remove #'s from the list for later editions.


Also, in the states at least, the pages of a 1st edition are sometimes uneven (as if they were the older ones that had to be cut) on the edges with later editions being even.

 

[funes]

True, Ashlea, for modern books. For earlier books (say pre-1940), there are things called points which book dealers can check to determine whether or not a book is a first edition. Sometimes these points can be as esoteric as a missing comma on page 145, or something.
Goodness knows it's way past me.

 

[soulflyseanb]

so would
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
be a first edition?
or does it have to include the 10?

 

[Ashlea]

Nope, that would be a first.