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Literary Review
First edition fever
PRADEEP SEBASTIAN
FOR me, it began with The Silence of the Lambs. One day, quite by chance, I happened to look at the imprint of my copy and noticed it was a First Edition. Excited, I pulled down all the hardbacks off my shelf to see if I owned other First Eds. To my astonishment and delight, there were 14. And I hadn't even known. Since then, whenever I come across a hardcover book, I eagerly check the copyright page. What is the mystique of the First Edition?
The only (weak) comparison or parallel I can think of to explain the lure of a First Edition is that it is like owning an original painting. Later editions — however new, however beautiful — can only be copies. I haven't gone as far as some collectors have — buying a book because it is a First Ed and not because they want it or care for it. For me (as for most book lovers) the importance of a First Ed is in the value t he book holds for me personally, not its market value. Which is why, for instance, I would gladly trade the more expensive and rarer Catcher In The Rye for Franny and Zooey — I happen to love the latter more. Or why a Maugham fan or a Wodehouse fan wouldn't think twice about trading her priceless Hemingway First Ed for the vastly cheaper Maugham or Wodehouse First Ed.
The above scenario, however, is not likely to ever happen in India because the only first editions you will ever turn up in our second and first hand bookshops are Hypermoderns, not Modern Firsts. Hypermoderns are contemporary first editions. A First Ed of a Sue Grafton or a John Grisham. (If you get lucky, you might find something more interesting — as I have from time to time: most recently First Eds of Martin Cruz Smith's Havana Bay, Jane Smiley's Moo, Walter Mosley's Black Betty and Arturo Perez Reverte's The Club Dumas. But not, alas, first eds of Hypermoderns that I have been dying for: Peter Hoeg's Smillas's Sense of Snow or Donna Tart's The Secret History). Walk into any Indian bookshop — first or second — and you won't even find a shelf, let alone a section, devoted to first editions. (Neither do we have book scouts — book hunters — like they have in the West, who track down rare books for a fee).
It is fairly easy to identify Hypermodern first editions. They clearly say on the copyright page: First Edition or First Ed. I rushed a copy via Ajoy.com (my very own version of Amazon.com — my cousin in New York who generously sends me books on demand) of Thomas Harris' Hannibal when it was just out, hoping the first imprint would have to be a First Ed. It was a first, all right — a first Trade edition. Which means that 500 signed copies were printed first and sold privately to bidding collectors.(That's what happens with the Stephen King books as well. And if the book happens to also be inscribed by the author, the price skyrockets). Sometimes, a book will say: 1st.U.K. or1st.U.S. In this case, you have to "follow the flag" — is the author American or British? — to find out which is the true First.
Identifying antiquarian and Modern First Eds is trickier. Because here a book may have two or even three first editions! How does this happen and how do you make out which was absolutely the first? For this you need to turn to books about book collecting such as Modern Book Collecting by Robert A. Wilson, Book Collecting: A Comprehensive Guide by Allen Ahearn, ABC for Book Collectors by John Carter and rare book catalogues that describe existing editions of rare First Eds. For example:
Steinbeck, John. The Moon Is Down New York: Viking,1942. First edition, first state with "talk.this" on page 112. Fine in a near fine just jacket. $150.
You need to now check for — what in the book trade is called — the state: first state, second state and so on. The first state is the part of the first printing before they found the mistakes. Sometimes during the printing run, the publisher notices that there was a mistake. They stop, correct it and continue printing. But by now they've already printed several copies. Thus by default these X number of copies become the first first edition. More typos and it becomes the second state. The next thing you have to familiarise yourself with are the Points of Issue between different states — that's what they call the errors that separate one state or issue from another. In Steinbeck's case, the period in the middle of the sentence (talk.this) is one Point of Issue. Each printing or state could have several Points or mistakes! The market value of a First Ed depends on its condition. The more pristine it is, the better. The book minus its dust jacket is worth less. Or if it is "foxed" (stained with brownish, yellow spots) and "rubbed" (if the spine is chafed or weak). A typical description of a rare First Ed in a book catalogue would look like this:
CAIN, JAMES M. THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE
New York: Alfred Knopf, 1934, First Edition. Very light spotting of the edges, corner of the first couple of pages creased, a fine copy in a dust jacket with a little rubbing of the extremities. Accompanied by the original design for the jacket spine and front cover. $5,000
STOKER, BRAM. DRACULA. London: Archibald Constable, 1897. First Edition, First printing, first issue. Front hinge cracking, back hinge just barely started, small cloth tears at the top and the bottom of the spine, light foxing and minor soiling. $9,500.
Marginalia and fly leaf we know but the antiquarian book trade has several less familiar names for parts of a book. The spine of a book is not a spine but a back strip, The chord used in some books to mark your place is the headband. The edge of a book furthest from its back strip is the fore-edge and they can come uncut (pages that are stuck and need to be cut open) or untrimmed (the fore-edges of pages deliberately left uneven). And endpapers are the four blank pages at the beginning and end of a book — not for the reader to make notes in but included by the bookbinder to give the book additional strength.
Pradeep Sebastian, a Bangalore-based freelance writer, is a bibliomaniac and a bibliomane. He can be contacted at:
pradeepsebastian@hotmail.com
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