...Book
collectors tend only to focus on the first printing of the first edition,
That may apply to collectors of modern firsts, but it hardly applies
to many other types of collector, e.g., me, who, among other things,
is a completist collector of A. Edward Newton; I'm certainly
interested in first issues of first printings of first editions, but
I ultimately want to have: (i) at least one (good association) copy
of every issue of every printing of every edition of every book by
AEN, (ii) a copy of every piece of ephemera relating to AEN, (iii) a
copy of every variant of every title published by AEN in the late
1880's and early 1890's, when he published typical (Victorian) gift
books, before he made the fortune that enabled him to put together a
rather impressive collection of English literature, and (iv) as much
correspondence and ms. material as I can get my hands on -- and can
afford to buy.
In the past few weeks I've even bought a printed (chocolates) box of
the candy company that AEN owned for a short time as well as a
(50lbs. or so) piece of 1904 electrical equipment manufactured by the
company in which he made his fortune. In the past I've bought printed
material relating to the coffee shop business -- originated at the
U.S. Centennial Exposition -- which AEN inherited from his
father-in-law, also an early Grolier Club member and reasonably
prominent collector, when the latter died in 1900.
So, even though it gives me a kick to find and identify a previously
undocumented variant of a book, a pamphlet, or an ephemeral piece,
the idea of basing my collecting on bibliographic details or
accidents would be incredibly boring.
Regards
Dave
PS...and I'm very interested in (deprecated below) periodicals with
appearances of and/or references to AEN ... and ASWR, and ... and
have even "collected/befriended" AEN's four granddaughters.
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:
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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