How to tell a first edition

This is the most asked question in book collecting, and the one with the most confident wrong answers: "first edition" means two different things, and most books do not say which one you are holding.

What makes a book a first edition?

An edition is everything printed from one setting of type. The first edition is the first time a publisher issued the book in that form, and in the strict sense every printing from that setting is still the first edition, the tenth included, as long as nothing was reset or revised.

A new edition starts when the text is reset or substantially changed, or when another publisher issues it. A new printing is just another run off the same plates.

Is a first edition the same as a first printing?

No, and the value sits on the printing. What collectors mean by "a first" is first edition, first printing: copies from the earliest run, before anything was corrected and before the book was known to be worth reprinting.

A first edition, tenth printing is honestly described as a first edition and is worth a small fraction of a first printing. So when a listing says "first edition" without saying "first printing", or "1st/1st", the printing is the thing to ask about.

Does the copyright page tell me which printing I have?

Sometimes, and it is the first place to look — the back of the title page, where the publisher puts the copyright notice, the printing statement and often the number line. Some publishers state it outright: "First edition", "First printing", "First published 1961", or a list of printings with dates, the last line naming your copy.

The date itself is the trap. A copyright date belongs to the text, not to the manufacturing, and it usually stays the same for the whole life of a book. A copy printed decades later can carry the same copyright year as the first printing.

Practice varies between publishers and has changed over time, so treat the copyright page as evidence rather than proof, and check it against how that publisher worked in that decade. An author bibliography, or a dealer who knows that publisher, settles what a general rule cannot.

What is a number line, and how do I read it?

A number line is a row of digits on the copyright page, often something like 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1. The usual reading is that the lowest number still present is the printing: a line with a 1 is a first printing, and when the publisher reprints, the 1 comes out and the lowest becomes 2.

Lines vary: some run sequentially, some count inward from both ends, and some mix in the year of printing.

Publishers differ, and this is where confidence gets people into trouble. Some houses printed a number line and a "First edition" statement together, and dropped the statement rather than a digit when reprinting, so the line alone misleads. Some first printings never show a 1; some books have no line at all.

What looks like a first but is not?

Book club editions. Printed for a mail-order club, often from the publisher's own plates, so the text pages can look identical. The usual tells are a jacket with no printed price, lighter boards and thinner paper, a smaller trim size, a blind-stamped mark on the back board, and sometimes "Book Club Edition" on a flap. Not every club edition announces itself, and a price-clipped trade jacket also has no price, so take the tells together.

Later printings in the same clothes. A reprint can use the same jacket artwork and binding as the first, with only the copyright page changed.

Another country's first. A first UK and a first US are both firsts, of different books, and one is earlier. Say which one you have.

Facsimiles and anniversary reissues, which reproduce the original jacket on purpose and usually say so inside.

How much does the dust jacket matter?

Enormously, for most twentieth-century books. For a modern first the jacket is frequently the larger part of the value, and the same book without one can be worth a small fraction.

A price-clipped jacket has had the corner of the front flap cut away, almost always to hide the price on a gift. It lowers value and removes a clue, since the printed price helps confirm the jacket belongs with the printing. Note it on your copy and grade what you have — see condition grading explained.

Why does a printing get its own entry on ctlgs?

Because the printing is the thing you own. The books catalog keeps one Book entry for the title and a separate Edition entry for each printing, so a 1965 hardcover and a movie tie-in paperback are not averaged into one record — editions and pressings is the long version.

It is also why an Edition has fields for the identifying codes and the dates: the ISBN, the publisher's catalogue number, the printing statement, the publication and printing years. Those are what you use to tell printings apart, and recording them saves the next person the same work.

ctlgs cannot tell you which printing your copy is; nothing can do that without the book in hand. It can hold the answer once someone has worked it out, and variants and limited editions covers when a difference deserves an entry of its own.