How to recognise a first edition
In terms of collecting modern books, we are almost exclusively concerned with first editions – the first printing in book form of an original work from a set of type. But how can you recognise these? Fortunately, most publishers will include the date of publication either at the foot of the title page or in a line on the title verso
For example, the title verso of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four states ”First published 1949”, whilst the line “Copyright 1952 by Daphne du Maurier” appears on the title verso of The Apple Tree. If this is all of the information given then it is usually safe to assume the book is a first edition. Later printings are usually designated by the line “Second impression” or “Reprinted” followed by the date. Sometimes these can be hard to spot so check carefully before buying as this will have quite a significant effect upon the value.
For later books, particularly those published from the 1990s onwards publishers often use a different designation. For example the copyright line of the first printing of Ian McEwan’s Atonement reads:
Published by Jonathan Cape 2001
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
Here the significant factor is that the number “1” is still present in the lower series of numbers. For the second and subsequent printings, the publisher will simply delete this number, leaving “2” as the lowest number and so on.
Undated books represent something of a problem for the collector and some publishers, such as Hodder & Stoughton, were notorious for not dating their books, particularly in the early part of the twentieth century. Here some more additional research may be needed. For instance is a list of the author’s or publisher’s other works included? If so, this can be helpful in fixing the date. In general though, you should be wary of undated books, as these can often turn out to be reprints.
With some titles, there may be additional slight differences or “issue points” between first edition copies. Staying with the example of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, the book is bound in a light green cloth but can appear in either a red or green dust jacket. No priority has been established as to which was issued first although the red variant is the scarcer of the two and so tends to command a higher price.
Factors affecting value
A number of different factors can combine to affect the value of a first edition to a collector. The first of these is the prevailing fashions or trends in the book collecting world. There are a number of authors whose reputations have become well established for a number of years through critical acclaim, their contribution to literature or through featuring in authoritative works such as Cyril Connolly’s One Hundred Books from the Modern Movement. However, attitudes can change over time so that authors who were once avidly collected can fall out of fashion and become disregarded. Conversely, some modern first editions can become very collectable very quickly with the best example in recent times being J K Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, published in 1997. Within three years five figure sums were being paid for this title as the Harry Potter titles rose to the top of the bestseller lists.
This example also illustrates that, as with any traded commodity, scarcity will have a marked impact upon value. The first print run of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was limited to 500 copies with perhaps 300 of these going to libraries. The run for the second book in the series, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, was much higher at 10,000, and so is much less valuable.
Another factor that can significantly affect a book’s value is whether it has been signed by the author. This is especially true for where the author is reluctant to appear in public or doesn’t participate in book signing events – particularly notable examples being Thomas Pynchon, Cormac McCarthy and the late J D Salinger. “Association copies” which have a link to the author – perhaps through containing the author’s own annotations or a personalised inscription to one of the author’s friends - can also attract a premium.
The other major consideration in determining value will be the book’s condition, with a complete and well-preserved copy attracting a much higher value than one which shows obvious signs of wear. There are a number of generally accepted standard terms that are used to describe a book’s condition as follows;
Mint. Both the book and dust jacket are in “as new” perfect condition.
Fine. Both the book and dust jacket are in excellent condition, although on closer inspection some signs of previous ownership, such as a small inscription on a preliminary page, or minor wear, such as slight rubbing to the corners, are evident.
Very Good. The book may have some foxing or fading and the dust jacket should have excellent colouring but with slight rubbing to most edges and corners. No major faults should be apparent.
Good. The book is obviously second hand but should be complete and, whilst the dust jacket should be fairly clean and have good colouring it may suffer from marks, creases and other signs of wear such as very small tears.
Poor. The book is in bad condition and may be warped with a damaged spine. Whilst the text is complete some preliminary pages may be missing. The dust jacket may be tatty and grubby and marked creased or torn.
In terms of the condition that one should be willing to accept, this rather depends upon how you view the purpose of your collection. If you regard it as an investment that you hope may appreciate in value or are concerned about its appearance when displayed on the shelf then you should only look to obtain books in the “very good” category or better. Good or poor copies of even quite scarce titles are seldom likely to appreciate or have a high resale value. If, on the other hand, you gain most of your enjoyment from the reading and handling of original editions of books and are aiming to keep them indefinitely then you can build up your collection much more cheaply by opting for copies in lesser condition.
Explanation of common faults
Some faults that can affect a book’s value – for example torn or missing pages – are self explanatory and it always pays to check carefully before buying. Some other faults, or at least the terms used to describe them in seller’s catalogues, may require a little additional explanation.
Chips. Where a dust jacket has been damaged through wear, fragments or “chips” can break off and become lost.
Ex Lib. This denotes a copy that has previously seen service in a lending library. As such it can be expected to have a number of serious faults such as library and date stamps, creased spine and perhaps even a binding that isn’t original to the book. As such these are best avoided. Having said that, I find that some markings from defunct libraries (such as the Boots lending library) can add to the interest of a title from the perspective of social history. However, this isn’t a view I would expect to be widely shared by other collectors when it comes to valuing a title.
Fading. Given that they are the element of the book that is most likely to be exposed to light, dust jackets can be prone to fading. With the modern four colour printing process using combinations of cyan, magenta, yellow and black, colours from the red and yellow ranges of the spectrum can be less stable and some book jackets featuring these colours are notoriously susceptible to this problem. So, for example, the jacket of le Carré’s The Looking Glass War is predominantly red and you are unlikely to find a copy where the spine hasn’t faded to white unless the previous owner has kept it in a darkened room or a box over the 45 years since it was published!
Foxing. Over time certain impurities in a book’s paper can react with air to form small brown stains. The term may be a contraction of the chemical “ferric oxide” which may be involved in producing the rust-like spots.
Inscriptions. Try to avoid copies where previous owners have written their names on one of the preliminary pages or, worse still, where the book has been given as a gift and a little message has been written to the recipient. Generally speaking the only name that will add to the value of a book is the author’s own.
Rubbing. Refers to where the spine, corners or edges of a book have suffered slight wear through use.
Dust jackets
The presence, or absence, of a dust jacket or dust wrapper will have a significant impact upon the value of a first edition and here it is worth knowing a little about the history of this feature. Whilst it is uncertain which title was the first to feature a dust jacket, Dickens’ Edwin Drood (published in 1870) is an early example. As the name implies the first dust jackets were produced to protect the book in transit from the printers or whilst on display in a bookshop and were meant to be discarded by the purchaser once they taken it home. As such they were generally plain in design with simple lettering and perhaps a small motif. Sometimes, as is the case with the Beatrix Potter books they were produced on transparent paper to enable browsers to see the attractive illustrations on the cover. For this reason examples from before World War 1 are extremely scarce – sometimes exceptionally so. For example, only two jacketed copies of Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles (published in 1902) are known to exist.
However from 1914 onwards publishers began to realise the marketing value of an attractively designed jacket and increasingly used them to carry illustrations, blurbs and reviewers’ comments. Dust jackets from titles published between the wars are still uncommon as they were relatively fragile and not generally retained by purchasers. For books published from World War 2 onwards, however, it is worth seeking out a jacketed copy when adding to your collection.
The increasing importance of dust jackets to collectors over recent years has led to the rise of restored or even facsimile dust jackets. A restored jacket is an original one which has been repaired, perhaps by mending tears or replacing chips with similar coloured paper. This is only worth having done professionally (since amateur repairs will reduce rather than enhance a book’s value) for those titles where the book’s is sufficiently valuable to warrant the expense. When selling a book with a restored jacket you should always make this fact known to the prospective purchaser as attitudes to the practice vary considerably.
More controversial still amongst collectors is the production of facsimile jackets using modern scanning and printing techniques. A number of concerns on the internet (including www.facsimiledustjackets.com and www.ladybluestocking.com) offer facsimile jackets at very reasonable prices and, particularly in the case of books from the early part of the last century, this may represent your best chance of being able to gain an appreciation of how the book would have appeared when new. Reputable producers of facsimiles are careful to clearly label their jackets as such and use modern types of paper to guard against their being passed off as the genuine article by subsequent sellers. However, as with restored jackets, caveat emptor applies!
Next month: Where to buy and sell books.
