First Editions: A Guide to Identification

Book by Zempel, Edward N.

Book collectors seek first editions, but many publishers provide little assistance in this quest. Even when they do designate edition and/or printing, they do not all use the same system. Thus, Harper & Row deletes numbers in successive reprints; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich adds letters. Some publishers denote edition or printing on the copyright page with the last number on the right, others with the first number on the left; still others note only second and later editions. Hence, this book is indispensable to collectors and libraries serving them. Zempel and Verkler have collected statements from some 1700 20th-century publishers of English-language books--about 700 more than in their 1984 edition--indicating current practices and earlier methods as far back as 1928. The guide also helps track down acquisitions and publishers' name changes. A worthy additions to most collections.
- Joseph Rosenblum, Univ. of North Carolina, Greensboro
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.