Identifying First Editions: The Fascination of Points of Issue
- By Renee Roberts
Smith's Dickens in Original Cloth is the standard for Dickens points of issue.
By Renée Magriel Roberts
Seeking a first edition is an ongoing preoccupation of any bookseller. We all know that the difference between a first edition and a second printing just after the first can be very significant.
For example, in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (London: Macmillan, 1872) prices range from $250 - $1000 for a second printing, but $1500 - $5500 for a first, depending upon condition, binding, and other amenities. The only thing that distinguishes a first and second printing of this book is a tiny typo on page 21: instead of the correct word "wabe" (as in "gyre and gimble in the wabe" in "Jabberwocky"), the typesetter set the word as "wade". A "d" instead of a "b" makes all the difference. Counter-intuitively it is the incorrectness of the typesetter that makes the book valuable, rather than the corrected printing with the intended words of the author.
Now, as it happens, we sold a copy of this book about a year ago acquired from another dealer. When it arrived we noticed a smudge right over the "d" (or was it a "b"?) in what should have been "wade", immediately making us suspicious that somebody had tried to alter the critical letter in order to make the book appear to be a first edition.
We couldn't see what was going on with the naked eye, or even clearly with the magnification we ordinarily use to look at the tiny signatures in plates or other minutiae. So we took the book to our very talented bookbinder who subjected it to a number of other tests. He measured the height of the other "d"s in the book and examined the type style, explaining that if a word is scraped off the page and reprinted it rarely conforms to other irregularities in the type. After the word passed that test we took the book upstairs to an engineer who had a very high magnification light table. Even if a word is scraped off and then reprinted exactly, a light table will show if the paper has been altered. Happily, it was not. The smudge was, after all, just a smudge, perhaps made by somebody pointing out the "point" that made the book a first edition.
This kind of technical determination is a bit extreme, but the necessity of identifying points is all too common, particularly in literature of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, where multiple issues of the same book occurred in the same year (a "first issue" and a "second issue") and the only distinguishing feature is the existence of typesetting errors of spelling, punctuation, additions, or omissions; or a binding difference in the kind or color of material or decoration, the placement of the titles on the binding, the placement of illustrations, any difference related to the dustjacket, collation, or any other consistently distinguishing feature that only occurs in the first issue and was corrected or changed in subsequent issues of the same year.
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Identifying First Editions: The Fascination of Points of Issue
- By Renee Roberts
McBride's Points of Issue is a very good reference work for 19th- and 20th-century literature.
This can get a little crazy when no differentiation is made, for example, among cloth colors that change during the same printing run. In that case, you might find that a collector prefers the earlier cloth color, even though "technically" both represent the first edition.
First editions can notoriously masquerade under what might seem low-value books, such as book club editions, or cheap, mass-market paperbacks, so you really have to know what you're doing in order not to throw away potentially valuable books, or sell them too cheaply to those in the know. Science fiction and poetry firsts can frequently be found in softcover format, although these are not usually subject to an investigation of points.
The collection of points of issue and their publication into reference works is hardly a done deal, but instead is an ongoing process. There are works covering centuries, as well as works targeted to specific authors. For example, Bill McBride's Points of Issue, a general work covering literature of the nineteenth and twentieth century (www.mcbridepublisher.com) $12.95, is now in its third edition.
Specific authors (usually prolific authors) who have received attention for their points include standards like Jules Verne and Charles Dickens. Determining a Verne first edition can be particularly problematic. We recently published a new, expanded edition of Jules Verne: A Collector's Bibliography of First Editions & Printings in English, Harwich Port: Clock & Rose Press, 2004) that contained many emendations and expansions of Edward and Judith Myers's classic 1988 work. Verne published the same works under different titles; the points that determine a first edition cover the spectrum of possibilities. The designation of some firsts are still the subject of ongoing arguments among Verne collectors and scholars.
The standard for Dickens points in cloth editions is the two-volume Charles Dickens in the Original Cloth by Walter Smith (Los Angeles: Heritage Book Shop, 1932). Smith notes the difficulty of identification in a paragraph designed to give any bookseller a headache: "The state of the text and plates of the novels originally published in parts often varies in volume-bound cloth copies. Generally the publication in book form was made up from the last-printed sheets of text and plates. Sometimes parts of the earliest state purchased in installments were submitted for binding in publisher's cloth. Copies also exist with a mixture of early and later states. Cloth variants also reflect different states of text and plates. Portions of a copy occasionally are bound from the parts and portions from later printings. Different combinations are not unusual, therefore, and may also be found in bindings other than those in original cloth. Such a lack of consistency therefore renders it difficult to analyze and isolate date and promulgate incontestable statements about Dickens in the original cloth. A further grievous circumstance is that many extant copies in original cloth have been tampered with."
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Identifying First Editions: The Fascination of Points of Issue
- By Renee Roberts
Jules Verne: A Collector's Bibliography of First Editions is the standard Verne reference work for identifying points of issue.
It might be tempting, therefore to take the information in Smith entirely at face value, recognizing that properly identifying first editions of Dickens in cloth is a task perhaps best left to dedicated collectors and high-end book dealers. However, even Smith can make an omission. Quite by accident we discovered a copy of Dickens's Our Mutual Friend (London: Chapman & Hall, 1865) in an original brown cloth binding completely overlooked by Smith. The collation, contents, type style, plates, and every single one of the many internal flaws matches Smith's description of a first. Despite some interesting conversations with an individual who self-designated herself as the Dickens book police, we maintain and stand behind this first edition.
Every scholar knows that any scientific body of knowledge is a constantly expanding and self-improving field, and the works of scholars who determine points of issue are no different. The bottom line is to take the time to do your homework, check for all known points carefully, and consult where necessary. Be prepared to change your mind. Then publish your results and stand behind your determination of a first edition.
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