Britannica 11

Encyclopedia Britannica Eleventh Edition

Even in these days of fast internet access to all sorts of arcane information, when you can “Google” just about anything, there is a print-and-paper reference work that retains its dusty luster and a fierce band of loyal adherents. This book is the so-called “Britannica 11”, or the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, published in 1910 and 1911.

The Encyclopedia Britannica was first published in three volumes between 1768 and 1771, at about the same time as Diderot’s famous “Encyclopedie” in France. But while the 18th century saw the birth of the modern encyclopedia, the 19th century saw the descent of the form into an academic exercise in navel-gazing. New editions of the Britannica were very scholarly and learned but none were particularly readable or even useful to a general audience, as they featured tediously long and ponderously dense entries. To add to the problem of usefulness (or lack thereof), each new edition was published in serial format, volumes being released as they were completed, a process that usually took from 3 to 8 years. One might almost read about archaeopteryx as a living bird in the first volume of an edition and read about the new zeppelins in the last volume…

With the publication of the 11th edition, that was all changed. The editors knew that they needed an entirely new book, not simply an updating of what had come before, and that it was essential that it all be current and up-to-date, and that it be readable. The type for the 11th edition was kept in proof, subject to revision, until all the volumes were ready. The first fourteen volumes were released in the fall of 1910, and the last fourteen, along with the Index volume, were released in the early spring of 1911. No 7-year wait to find out the latest news in Zoology.

For the new edition the editors recruited a wide range of academics, writers, scientists and other experts in their fields. A real attempt was made to make sure that the entries were well written in addition to being informative, and many were kept short enough to be readable but still long enough to be completely accurate and comprehensive. Many of the entries are signed with the initials of the author, and a complete index of authors, and the entries they wrote, was included in the index in Volume 29.

The coverage of the 11th edition was unique to its time and has never been repeated–it came out late enough to encompass the great changes that had taken place in the 19th century, but before the even greater changes that would take place with the start of the First World War just a few years later. In consequence, the editors were able to create an encyclopedia that reflected the “modern” world while retaining many references to the “old” one. As the publisher’s own publicity put it, the 11th edition contained:

“The sum of human knowledge – all that mankind has thought, done or achieved, all of the past experience of humanity that has survived the trial of time and the ordeal of service and is preserved as the useful knowledge of today. Of the human race and its endowment, of persons, places, histories, languages, literature, arts, sciences, religions, philosophies, laws, industries, and of the things and ideas connected with these, all is included that is relevant and everything explained that is explainable. In brief, to borrow an illustration from the engineer, the contents of the Eleventh Edition of the EB constitute a cross section of the trunk of the tree of knowledge.”

Even taking into account the possibility that the publishers may have overstated their case, the result was impressive. Entries on history, on scientists, theologians, politicians and other important figures from the Middle Ages through the 18th century abound, and it is these entries which make the 11th edition so valuable to booksellers. With later editions (specifically the 14th and on) many of these entries would be jettisoned to make space for 20th century subject matter.

The 11th also managed to set a new tone for encyclopedias, one that would not last. In 1910 the world was on the verge of great change, yet that change was still seen as a wholly positive thing. Technology and progress were lauded, and knowledge was a tool for the betterment of Mankind. Many entries reflect a candor and willingness to be honest, or at least opinionated, which would vanish in later editions. The Edwardian world that spawned the 11th edition would be shaken by the sinking of the Titanic a year later, and completely obliterated by the First World War, Great Depression, Second World War and many other events of the 20th century. Some later editions would do just as good a job of reflecting the world in which they were published, but it would be a radically changed world.

Before moving on to describe just how changed later editions would be, I must mention the 12th and 13th editions, for it is probably not fair to ignore those oft-forgotten sets. The 12th and 13th were basically updates of the 11th, with supplementary volumes. It was with the sale of the enterprise to an American publisher and the release of the 14th edition in 1929 that the Britannica was radically altered and the scholarly fur began to fly.

Put as gently as possible, the 14th edition was designed not to offend anyone, or at least nobody in the English-speaking portion of the world. In the 11th edition many theologians had been asked to write entries regarding religion and religious figures, but the entries had not been prepared, or approved, by the hierarchy of the mainstream churches. For the 14th edition these were written with the direct purpose of making the churches involved happy, and not offending anyone. The result was that everyone involved felt better, but historical accuracy suffered dreadfully. Regrettable incidents in religious history, especially ancient and Medieval history, were glossed over or eliminated, and important figures were not always to be presented in a strictly accurate manner. The changes went beyond religion. Women, whose contributions to history, the arts and literature had been allowed to burst through into the pages of the 11th edition, were put back into their kitchens, and there were also political considerations brought to bear, as the Germans and other Central Power countries saw the tone or even substance of some of their related entries altered in the bitter aftermath of World War One.

Encyclopedia Britannica

Reaction to the change was not positive, to put it mildly. Scholars and academics were appalled, and sales tanked. The 11th edition had been a bestseller; the 14th edition (probably also hurt by the onset of the Depression) was a great disappointment. Britannica’s editors would drop the “please everyone” tone for the 15th edition, but by that time there was so much new 20th century material to include that much of the earlier, more esoteric material which is of so much interest to booksellers researching semi-obscure 16th century scientists or 17th century theologians, had to be discarded.

Thus, the 11th edition, along with the related 12th and 13th editions, remains as an encyclopedia that is still useful almost a hundred years later. The text has passed out of copyright, and web-based and cd-rom editions are readily available. For those who simply have to have the paper edition, the larger, full-size set is recommended, although it will take up (your author pauses and gets out his ruler)… almost 3 feet of shelf space. And, with 30,000 pages holding 40,000 entries containing 4 millions words, it is a heavy set, so you had best make it a sturdy, well anchored shelf…

By: Forrest Proper URL: http://www.joslinhall.com/

#collecting #reference

Mystery Reference Shelf or Two

Mystery and detective fiction is probably more popular today than at any time in its history, including the so-called Golden Age in the 1920s and 30s. I’ve tried to aim this list at generalist dealers who might want more information about mystery fiction, but do not need the reference works of a specialist in the field.

Because, as Christopher Morley said of Sherlockian writings, “Never has so much been written by so many for so few,” I have separated Holmes-related items from other mystery reference and included it in its own section at the end.

The items marked with an asterisk are the most highly recommended and useful of the reference materials for a generalist dealer. Through them, one can locate most of the others. The rest of the works listed are some of my favorites, and other mystery dealers probably have their own preferences. Chacun a son gout.

MYSTERY AND DETECTIVE FICTION, EXCLUDING SHERLOCKIANA

1. GENERAL CHECKLISTS AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES :

*Hubin, Allen J. Crime Fiction III. A Comprehensive Bibliography: 1749 -1995. Though not a descriptive bibliography, Hubin is the major bibliographical checklist for detective fiction and an indispensable work for anyone collecting or dealing in the genre. In addition to the major author and title index for books, it includes short stories indexed by title and author, movies listed by title and book author, a series index, and a settings index. However, users should be aware that there is no critical commentary about the works listed: the worst writers are treated as equally as the best.

The first four editions of Hubin are available in book format, but this most recent update is available only on CD-ROM from Locus Press at https://amber.site-secure.net/locusmag/About/CDRomAd.html. The CD-ROM edition includes all entries from Hubin’s four previous editions: The Bibliography of Crime Fiction: 1749 – 1975, Crime Fiction: 1749-1980, Supplement to Crime Fiction: 1981-1985, and Crime Fiction II: 1749-1990.

*Albert, Walter. Detective and Mystery Fiction: An International Bibliography of Secondary Sources. Second edition, revised and expanded. 2000. As Hubin is the major checklist for mystery and detective fiction, Albert is the major checklist for mystery reference materials, excluding Sherlockiana. Its sections include: Bibliographies, Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, and Checklists; General Reference Works: Historical & Critical: Books and Articles; Dime Novels, Juvenile Series, and Pulps; and Authors. The section on authors is particularly useful since it lists bibliographies as well as books and articles about all major and most minor mystery writers.

Although the first edition was published in book format, the second revised edition is available only on CD-ROM from Locus Press at https://amber.site-secure.net/locusmag/About/CDRomAd.html.

The above two works are both indispensable and so are listed first. The books that follow are a sampling of some of the most useful checklists to supplement the above, and are listed in alphabetical order by author.

Adey, Robert. Locked Room Murders and Other Impossible Crimes: A Comprehensive Bibliography. Minneapolis: Crossover Press, 1991. Revised and expanded edition. An indispensable work, very well done, for a popular, though limited, category of mystery fiction.

Barzun, Jacques and Wendell Hertig Taylor. A Catalogue of Crime. NY: Harper & Row, [1971]. The most extensive annotated general survey of crime fiction, with 3,476 entries arranged by author. It includes plot summaries and critical comments and is not complete in any sense of the word, but is almost always entertaining since the authors “call ’em as they see ’em” with no reluctance whatsoever in expressing their often controversial opinions. A revised and enlarged edition was published in 1989.

I don’t feel this title is really necessary for a generalist, but I include it because it is one of those often seen on the reference shelves of dealers, most of whom, I suspect, have probably seldom used it.

Breen, Jon L. What About Murder? A Guide to Books about Mystery and Detective Fiction (Metuchen: The Scarecrow Press, 1981) and its very extensive update, What About Murder? 1981- 1991. (Metuchen: The Scarecrow Press, 1993). Breen does not attempt to cover the number of items in Albert, but his annotations show a lot of insight into the field, and make this work very useful. Both volumes are necessary since (as the title of the second volume makes clear) the items in the 1981 publication are not included in the 1993 update.

Contento, William G. And Martin H. Greenberg. Index to Crime and Mystery Anthologies. Boston: G. K. Hall, [1991]. This work includes the appearances of all short stories in hardbound mystery anthologies from 1875 to about 1990. More than 1,000 anthologies are indexed by editor and title with the contents listed. Stories are also indexed by author and title. It’s useful for helping customers find out if and where a short story was previously published.

This has since been issued on a CD-ROM as Mystery Short Fiction Miscellany: An Index by William G. Contento. It combines Index to Crime and Mystery Anthologies with Index to Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and Mystery Short Fiction: 1990-2000. I have not seen this CD, but according to Locus Press, it indexes 1,500 books and 1,100 magazine issues, for a total of 23,000 stories by 7,800 authors. It is available at:https://amber.site-secure.net/locusmag/About/CDRomAd.html.

Cook, Michael L. And Stephen T. Miller. Mystery, Detective, and Espionage Fiction: A Checklist of Fiction in U.S. Pulp Magazines, 1915-1974. NY: Garland, 1988. Two volumes. A thorough and extraordinarily useful work (as most of Michael Cook’s reference works are), these two volumes list all fiction published in mystery pulp magazines, issue by issue. Volume one lists these works by magazine title in nearly 700 pages set in double-columns. Volume two provides the same material indexed by author.

Cook, Michael L. Monthly Murders: A Checklist and Chronological Listing of Fiction in the Digest-Size Mystery Magazines in the United States and England. Westport: Greenwood Press, [1982]. By digest-size, Cook means the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine format, and Cook lists the title and author of every story in each issue of 110 of these magazines and also provides an index by author.

*Cooper, John and B. A. Pike. Detective Fiction: The Collector’s Guide. Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1994. Second edition. Although this work focuses on British detective fiction (including British editions of American writers), it is invaluable for its commentary on bindings and dust jackets. The endpapers, featuring the signatures of around 100 mystery writers from Agatha Christie and Margery Allingham to Ellis Peters and P. D. James, and the beautiful color photographs are the icing on the cake of a very useful book.

Menendez, Albert J. The Subject Is Murder: A Selective Subject Guide to Mystery Fiction (NY: Garland, 1986) and its companion volume The Subject is Murder Volume Two (NY: Garland, 1990). Most useful to dealers who have customers asking such questions as “Do you have any more mysteries dealing with advertising, art, architecture, gardening, schools and universities, religion, sports, television, Christmas, bookstores, writers, trains, medicine, law….” Well, you get the idea.

*Pederson, Jay P. St. James Guide to Crime & Mystery Writers. Detroit: St. James Press, 1996. Fourth edition. While nowhere near as complete as Hubin, many generalist dealers might find it more useful for the writers covered because it includes a capsule biography of each writer covered along with a short critical essay on the writer and, if the author was alive at the time of publication, a few comments by the author on his or her own work. Many of the critical essays are written by well-known critics and by other mystery writers.

Because each edition dropped some writers and added others, the three previous editions are also useful. However, the three previous editions had a different name which St. James, for some reason changed with the fourth edition. The three earlier works were all known as Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers. The first two editions (St. Martin’s Press, 1980 and 1985) were edited by John Reilly and the third edition (Gale Publishing, 1991) was edited by Lesley Henderson.

2. HISTORIES AND CRITICAL WORKS:

Any good mystery reference shelf must include histories and critical works on the genre and Albert, cited above, is the best source for finding them.

The historical and critical books listed below are a few of my personal favorites. I have listed them alphabetically by author. I prefer older mystery writers to newer ones, and this is reflected in my selections.

Haycraft, Howard. Murder for Pleasure. NY: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1941. [reprinted, without revision, by Biblo and Tannen in 1974]. The first formal history of the genre, and still one of the best. It is obviously limited in that it stops in 1940.

Popular Press is not a book, but a publisher well known for its output in the area of mystery reference and criticism, and many of its older works are still in print. For critical books dealing with sub-genres of mystery fiction (women writers, espionage, golden age fiction, private eyes, police procedurals, etc.), Popular Press is an excellent place to start. Formerly at Bowling Green State University, Popular Press was acquired by the University of Wisconsin in July 2002. Because, at this writing, things are still in transition, their offerings can be checked out either at http://www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress/popularpress.html, or athttp://www.bgsu.edu/offices/press/bcat.html .

Quayle, Eric. The Collector’s Book of Detective Fiction. [London]: Studio Vista, [1972]. Great illustrations, but most useful for pre-WWII authors.

Queen, Ellery. The Detective Short Story: A Bibliography. Boston: Little, Brown, 1942. Also reprinted by Biblo and Tannen. Though a bibliography, the Queens’ critical comments probably merit its being placed in the critical category.

Queen, Ellery. Queen’s Quorum: A History of the Detective-Crime Short Story as Revealed in the 106 Most Important Books Published in this Field since 1845. Boston: Little, Brown, 1951. This was reprinted in 1969 with supplements bringing it up to 1967.

*Steinbrunner, Chris and Otto Penzler with Marvin Lachtman and Charles Shibuk. Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection. NY: McGraw-Hill, [1976]. A very useful general reference, with a particular emphasis on films related to the authors and works discussed.

Symons, Julian. Bloody Murder. From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel: A History. London: Faber and Faber, [1972].

3. AUTHOR BIBLIOGRAPHIES:

Author bibliographies are the most important part of a dealer’s reference shelf. In the field of mystery and detective fiction, a number of fine ones have already been published, but many more still need to be done. Albert, cited above, can provide information about not only about bibliographies already published in book form, but about preliminary bibliographies, checklists, and critical articles for many authors which may appear within various fanzines and magazines.

The descriptive bibliographies listed below (by subject, then author) are a few of the ones I feel are most useful and most well done:

Raymond Chandler: A Descriptive Bibliography. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1979.

Dashiell Hammett: A Descriptive Bibliography. Richard Layman. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1979.

Tony Hillerman: From “The Blessing Way” to Talking God.” A Bibliography. Louis A. Hieb. Tucson: Press of the Gigantic Hound, 1990.

A Macdonald Potpourri–being a miscellany of post-perusal pleasures of the John D. MacDonald books for bibliophiles, bibliographers, and bibliomaniacs. Walter and Jean Shine. Gainesville: University of Florida Libraries, 1988. Though not strictly a descriptive bibliography and though a little difficult “to get the hang of”at first, this is an invaluable reference for sorting out the first edition paperback originals of JDM. It can be used in conjunction with, but contains much more information in terms of paperbacks than, the Shines’ earlier A Bibliography of the Published Works of John D. MacDonald (Gainesville: University of Florida, 1980).

Ross Macdonald/Kenneth Millar: A Descriptive Bibliography. Matthew J. Bruccoli. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1983.

Royal Bloodline: Ellery Queen, Author and Detective. Francis M. Nevins, Jr. Bowling Green: Popular Press, 1974. Not a descriptive bibliography, but the best reference source currently available for the two men who did so much to popularize detective fiction through their novels and critical and writings.

A Bibliography of the Works of Dorothy L. Sayers. Colleen B. Gilbert. Hamden: Archon Books, 1978.

Rex Stout: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography. Guy M. Townsend, editor. NY: Garland Publishing, 1980. This is not a descriptive bibliography and is not useful for determining first edition points, but it does attempt to list every item written by or about Stout up to its date of publication. It also includes media treatments of Stout’s works on radio, in the movies, and on television.

Julian Symons: A Bibliography. With commentaries and a personal memoir by Julian Symons and a preface by H. R. F. Keating. John J. Walsdorf. New Castle: Oak Knoll Press, 1996.

The pages of back issues of the journal The Armchair Detective are very useful for specific author bibliographies. Otto Penzler, the dean of detective fiction, wrote a column called “Collecting Detective Fiction” from around 1982 through 1995. His checklists include publication information and points for first editions for many of the most prominent mystery writers. Fortunately, many of these have been recently updated and published in pamphlet form and are available from The Mysterious Bookshop which can be emailed at: info@mysteriousbookshop.com .

Firsts Magazine has a mystery issue once or twice a year and publishes mystery writer checklists. The November 2002 John D. MacDonald issue is particularly outstanding–see http://www.firsts.com/Nov02.html.

Allen and Patricia Ahearn have included many mystery writers in their Author Price Guides Series. See http://www.qbbooks.com/ind_apg.htm.

4. DEALER AND AUCTION CATALOGUES:

Although the Internet diminished the value of dealer and auction catalogues as price guides, they can still be very helpful in providing a lot of bibliographical information, and many are illustrated. The value of a catalogue, obviously, depends in great measure on how much additional information is provided–but even cloth colors, when listed, and numbers of pages can be helpful when researching a book.

5. PEER RESOURCES:

Don’t neglect fellow dealers as a resource. Most are always willing to help. I strongly recommend the following:

The Deadly Directory: 2002. Kate Derie, editor. Lists booksellers, organizations, events, periodicals, publishers, and information resources in the field of mystery and detective fiction. You can get more information at: http://www.deadlyserious.com.

6. INTERNET RESOURCES:

Unfortunately, the most useful site on the internet for mystery and detective fiction, The Mysterious Homepage, has mysteriously disappeared. It contained a wealth of links to other internet sources.

However Google or another search engine can be a valuable resource in locating sites related to mystery fiction in terms of specific authors, characters, sub-genres (bibliomysteries, historical mysteries, dime novels), publishers, and awards (both the Mystery Writers of America and the English Crime Writers Association have web sites).

Most published writers today either have their own web sites or have unofficial web sites run by fans.

Two internet sites are particularly good for examples of authors’ signatures and include many mystery writers in their lists: http://www.purplehousepress.com/sig.htm, andhttp://home.earthlink.net/~criswell/authors/agraphs.htm

SHERLOCKIANA

1. CHECKLISTS AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES:

*De Waal, Ronald B. The Universal Sherlock Holmes. 1993. As Hubin is the essential reference work for detective fiction and as Irene Adler is the Woman, Ronald Burt De Waal has provided the most comprehensive bibliography of all things Sherlockian. The first edition of his work was The World Bibliography of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson (Boston: New York Graphics Society, 1974), which contained over 6,200 entries. The International Sherlock Holmes (Hamden: Archon Books, 1980) followed with more than 6,000 additional entries. The Universal Sherlock Holmes includes all entries from the first two volumes plus 12,000 new entries, for a total of 24,703 items.

Hubin lists not only all printings of the canon, individual stories and novels along with collections, but also pastiches, parodies, and writings about the writings. He includes newspaper articles, dramatic presentations, and all kinds of Sherlockian ephemera. It is a unique work–one of a kind.

The Universal Sherlock Holmes is available from George Vanderburgh of The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box at gav@bmts.com as a book in five volumes (four volumes and an index) bound either in paper with a plastic comb binding or in hardback. It is also available on CD-ROM.

*Green, Richard Lancelyn and John Michael Gibson. A Bibliography of A. Conan Doyle. Oxford: The Clarenden Press, 1983. A complete descriptive bibliography, this is the standard reference work on Doyle. It was reprinted in 1984 with corrections, and that corrected edition was reprinted in 2000 by Hudson House and is widely available. It is now also available in a Windows program on CD-ROM from George Vanderburgh of The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box at gav@bmts.com.

Whitt, J. F. The Strand Magazine: 1891-1950. A Selective Checklist. London: Whitt, 1979. Although there is no definitive index of The Strand, this short paperbound work lists all material related to Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as all stories by P. G. Wodehouse, and a selection of other contributions, mainly by writers of detective, mystery, or fantasy fiction. It is quite scarce but worth buying when it turns up.

*Shaw, John Bennett. The Basic 100: The 100 Most Important Critical Studies and Association Items to the Sherlock Holmes Canon. Various places and dates. John Bennett Shaw, who owned the largest Sherlockian collection in private hands before it was donated to the University of Minnesota’s Special Collections, first developed this list in 1977 based on an exhibit of items from his collection 11 years earlier. He revised it a number of times before his death in 1994, and others have continued tinkering with it since then. A 1998 list done with the approval of Shaw’s widow and annotated by Carl Thiel is readily available as a paperback from George Vanderburgh of The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box at gav@bmts.com. Shaw’s own 1988 version, without commentary, is available on the web athttp://geocities.com/Athens/Forum/7846/shaw_yop.html. For generalist dealers, the Shaw reference can answer a number of customer questions about which books they might recommend about Sherlock Holmes.

2. OTHER SHERLOCKIAN REFERENCES FOR A GENERALIST BOOKDEALER :

Redmond, Christopher. A Sherlock Holmes Handbook. Toronto: Simon & Pierre, [1993]. For a one-book introduction to Sherlock Holmes, Redmond’s book is my favorite. It contains the most basic information that a beginner would want. The introduction includes short summaries of the entire canon, 56 stories and 4 novels, and the following chapters provide specific information about Holmes and Watson, Doyle, and their world in very readable form. The very detailed index makes the book exceptionally useful and reader-friendly.

Tracy, Jack. The Encyclopaedia Sherlockiana. Garden City: Doubleday, 1977. Alphabetically arranged, this is a fine reference for locating names, places, and general subjects in the canon quickly and easily.

Herbert, Paul D. The Sincerest Form of Flattery: An Historical Survey of Parodies, Pastiches and Other Imitative Writings of Sherlock Holmes 1891-1980. Bloomington: Gaslight, 1983. Long before Doyle’s death in 1930, other writers began to appropriate the character of Sherlock Holmes. In the beginning, they used parodies to make fun of Holmes who had, in a very short time, become one of the best-known fictional characters in England and the United States. After Doyle’s death made it clear there would be no more Holmes stories, others tried their hands at writing serious pastiches which they hoped might fill the void. Pastiche and parody have coexisted for a little more than a century now, and one Sherlockian recently wrote that he had identified more than 4,000 such items.

Herbert does not attempt to list all the parodies and pastiches he knows, but instead he divides his book into subject-oriented chapters, organizing parodies and pastiches around historical figures, historical events, fictional characters, science fiction, trades and special interests, cases mentioned as being in Watson’s tin dispatch box, Christmas, Holmes’ relatives, and many more. His book also includes a bibliography of parodies and pastiches. For a generalist dealer, the Herbert book can help to guide customers looking for “more Sherlock Holmes.”

There are, as one can see from the entry on De Waal, literally thousands of Sherlockian books and pamphlets, not to mention hundreds of journals and newsletters devoted to Holmes, but the ones above are probably all a generalist dealer would need. The rest of the writings should probably be left to Morley’s “so few,” mentioned at the opening of this essay, the readers, the collectors, and the enthusiasts who still believe, with Vincent Starrett, that “it is always 1895.”

By: Michael S. Greenbaum

URL: http://janusbooks.com

#collecting #reference

IOBA Q & A Column

I rented the movie, “We were Soldiers Once…and Young” and found it very well done. I highly recommend it. I then began a search through my boxes of books and found a copy of the book. I need some help on determining whether it is a true first, and hope you might be able to provide some information in this regard.

The book is in f/f condition with no price clipped on the d/w. Random House. Copyright 1992. 8765432. First Edition isbn 0-679-41158-5. Methinks this is a first edition, second printing.

Thanks in advance for your help and kind responses,

John Scott Porterfield

You would seem to have a first edition. The Random House rule is that they don’t use the number “1” in their line, but remove the words “first edition” at the time of second printing.

May I suggest you invest in McBrides book on First Editions, and of course any other reference books you can get. Reference books should be a requirement in the biz and McBrides, although not the only one that covers these questions, is the least expensive.

Richard Mori of Mori Books

And…..

It is a FIRST EDITION. In 1992, Random House began its number line with a “2” and the words, “FIRST EDITION.” For the second printing they simply dropped the verbiage and for the third printing they dropped the “2,” etc.

Hope this helps.

Sam in AZ

I know this has been answered before, but I suppose I wasn’t paying attention because I can’t remember the answer – what percentage is normally charged for consignment sales?

Jennifer Sadler

There is no “normal” or standard percentage, at least in the used book trade. The most common consignment fees are in the 10% to 20% range (largely a function of the kind of material being sold). 10%, 15% and 20% are all used and seem fair and reasonable to me although in the case of a more established dealer as the consignee for less saleable material, especially in quantity, fees as high as 40 to 50% are not unheard of.

Of course, these numbers are all negotiable.

Sam Gottlieb.

And…..

New book stores can be thought of as consignment sales for books since they can return them for credit. Typical discounts for them run between 35 and 50 percent. As I’m sure you know, this is a very general statement and there are non-returnable books. In general, it is my experience that the non returnables enjoy deeper discounts than returnables.

And from the editor: I have accepted books on a 50/50 percentage basis, and 30% or 40% as well. A local antique shop gives 60/40 in favor of the consignor – a very generous arrangement. I think a lot depends on the value of the books consigned, and if the two parties can arrange an amicable agreement.

As you can see, the percentages are all over the place. I would suggest you set up your guidelines based on what you have learned, and be flexible.

DeWayne White, of White Unicorn

When listing a book that is a later printing, I have been listing the date that the printing occurred rather than the copyright date.

Is this the proper procedure?

Cynthia Putt Parnassus On Wheels

The standard format of cataloging the date of a book has been to indicate the last date shown wherever it appears and, most important, when that date appears on the title page the date is shown by itself—without parenthesis–, but when the only or last date shown is on the copyright page it is shown in parenthesis.

Most dealers who have been cataloging books for years understand and use this standard format, as do most if not all ABAA dealers. This standard format tells any reader if the date appears on the title page or not, and consequently helps everyone understand when that particular copy was printed.

As you probably know, most often when there is a date on the title page of a book, and that date agrees with the copyright date on the verso of the title page, the book is a First Edition; not always, but usually. When a cataloger fails to indicate if the date appears on the title page or its verso by the use of this standard format, the customer cannot be certain the book is a true First Edition or a later printing or reprint.

This standard format also helps to clearly explain exceptions. For example, if we catalog a book showing the date in parenthesis and state it is a “First Edition” or “First Printing”, we are telling our customer and others the book is a true First Edition or First Printing even though the date does not appear on the title page. For many early twentieth century books, and before, this is especially important.

I hope this helps, and encourages others to adopt this standard format.

Michael Mart The Good Times Bookshop

Our thanks to all of the above contributors. Jean S. McKenna – Books Chairman Education Committee

And finally, this helpful bit of information from Vic Zoschak of Tavistock Books:

Per requests I’ve received, this a follow-up on my previous posting regarding the correct use of the word ‘edition’ as applied to books from the hand press period. The definition below comes from Fredson Bowers’ PRINCIPLES OF BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION [New Castle DE: Oak Knoll Books, 1998], pg 108:

PRINCIPLES OF BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION

“An edition of hand-printed books is ordinarily the whole number of copies printed at any time or times from substantially the same setting of type. An early printer usually distributed his type soon after the form for which it had been set was printed. If, after the book had been placed on sale, more copies were required than had originally been printed, the book was perforce completely reset and a new edition created. The laws of the Stationers’ Company limiting the commercial edition of an early book to twelve to fifteen hundred copies had a marked effect on multiplying the editions of popular works.”

For those that don’t know Bowers, quoting from G. Thomas Tanselle’s introduction to the copy I have in front of me will sum up Bowers’ standing in the bibliographic world: [Bowers’ work is] “the standard guide on the subject*.”

* The subject, of course, being primarily the physical description of a book from the hand-press period, though there are chapters in his work on bibliographical descriptions of 19th & 20th C. books, and their inherent problems/challenges.

Regards, Vic Zoschak Tavistock Books

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