Book Club

[luvmyteddy4]

I have a vintage book store owner coming tomorrow to buy my old Nancy Drew, Hardy Boy, etc etc books.

I have three really old books like Pollyanna, Capt Courageous and Goodbye Mr. Chips books.

I think the Pollyanna book could be first edition but I never know where to look.

If there is a copyright date does that mean I have a repeat book? The Pollyanna book has 1912 and 1913 for the copyright date. How do you know it's a first edition?

[Bookplate]

There isn't an easy answer to this.  All books have a copyright date; it has nothing to do with the edition. Sometimes the publisher will state "first edition" or "first printing" on the page with the copyright.  Not always.  If you see a string of numbers and the first one is a 1, then it probably is a first edition.  If the copyright date is the same as the printing date, chances are it's a first edition.  Did you try googling how to tell if a book is a first edition?  There are a lot of variations unfortunately.

Retired librarian here, and major Nancy Drew fan.

[Q-Checker]

Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, The Bobbsey Twins, The Little Colonel, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn -- those were the days!

[Big Joanie]

Any body hear of " The Happy Hollisters "  from the 50's ??

[gardenman]

In general, you can tell a first edition by the editing errors that snuck through. With each reprint, the publishers will typically fix the things they missed the previous time. (And they always miss something.) A misspelled word will be fixed. Punctuation will be changed. And a new mistake will occur in that reprint that they'll then fix on the next one.

The book appraisal experts will know what to look for. Differing margins, typesets, errors, letter spacing, misspellings, and more all tell the experts exactly what they're seeing. They'll know to (for example) look at page 50 and see if "back" in the second paragraph was spelled correctly. If yes, the book is a later edition. If not, and spelled as "beck," it could be a first edition. There's always something. Every book tells a story not just on the pages, but in the book itself.

[Laura14]

@Big Joanie  Yes! They were a few of my favorite books. 

I still have my entire sets of Little House and Trixie Belden.