I think this discussion points out a serious need for an expansion of the
bibliographical definition of edition to reflect modern technology. I think
it was fair to say that when Bowers defined an edition based on a setting of
type, he was thinking of the handpress era.
As such, he didn't even consider illustrations to be part of the notion of
edition. Illustrations were printed separately and added at the binding
stage and had nothing to do with the type. A book's binding also had little
relevance, since bindings were done independently of the printing. Today,
many illustrated books are printed from integrated plates that combine text
and image together, and binding is often done inline with the printing and
is hard to separate from the production of the pages.
In the current issue of Fine Books & Collections, Joel Silver provides a
brief introduction to the notion of the first edition and points out the the
term edition has different meanings for bibliographers, book collectors, and
publishers (who probably originated the term). These differences in approach
inevitable cause confusion.
Bibliographers give the term edition its most precise meaning, but it is
strictly limited to the text of a book, and not the surrounding parts. Book
collectors tend only to focus on the first printing of the first edition,
but they care about things like the binding, dust jacket, and illustrations
that bibliographers often give less weight to. Different publishers use the
term edition to mean different things and are under no compunction to be
consistent. But then book collectors and bibliographers borrowed the term
from printers and publishers so we can't really complain about them using it
incorrectly.
Joel also points out all the things that we don't consider first editions -
periodical appearances, proofs, etc.
I adapted Joel's article to replace the Wikipedia definition of first
edition. I would encourage those of you who are particularly interested in
this subject to add to our start:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_edition
Just hit the Edit This Page button at the top of your screen and revise
away. As the founders of Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia written by its
readers, say, Be bold.
Scott Brown
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P. Scott Brown, Editor
Fine Books & Collections magazine
PO Box 106
Eureka, CA 95502
tel. 707.443.9562
fax. 707.443.9572
http://www.finebooksmagazine.com
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