[bksvol-discuss] Re: the numbers on copyright pages in books
- From: Cindy <popularplace@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2005 22:44:39 -0800 (PST)
Interesting that you should mention that, Shelley. I
learned just a couple of weeks ago when I was working
in the used-book store what those numbers meant. I'd
always wondred why they were there and if they were
nuecssary (I did always faithfully reproduce them). A
book collector came in and we were looking at books
and she explained.
She says that the those numbers indicate how many
editions of the book there were, i.e., what edition
the one in one's hand is. Sometimes, she said, you
can't trust the "1st edition" words that are printed
on the copyright page, because when there's a new
printing the publisher doesn't always bother to delete
those words, but the numbers indicate what printing it
is. (I always considered that an edition technically
means that there were some editorial changes, maybe
not in the text itself but a forward or commentary or
something, vis a vis a new printing). If the book
shows a 1 or 0, then it's the first edition. If the
numbering starts with 2 or 3, then there have been
printings before that. A true collector of first
editions wants only what is truly a first edition. The
library copy of My Friend Rabbit starts with the
number 2, not 1. Also, she told me that some
publishers put the numbers from right to left instead
of left to right, which is the way they are in Rabbit.
Cindy
> doesn't mean anything because I have had several
> nonfictions that were both
> a 0 or a 1.
>
>
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