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=={{anchor|first}} First edition <!-- Section linked from [[Horus Heresy (novels)]] -->== {{Redirect|First edition}} [[File:UncleTomsCabinCover.jpg|thumb|right|180px|Title-page illustration by [[Hammatt Billings]] for ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]'', First Edition: Boston: [[John P. Jewett]] and Company, 1852]] According to the definition of ''edition'' above, a book printed today, by the same [[publisher]], and from the same type as when it was first published, is still the ''first edition'' of that book to a [[bibliographer]]. However, [[book collector]]s generally use the term ''first edition'' to mean specifically the first [[print run]] of the first edition (aka "first edition, first impression"). Since World War II, books often include a number line ([[printer's key]]) that indicates the print run. A "first edition" per se is not a valuable collectible book. A popular work may be published and reprinted over time by many publishers, and in a variety of formats. There will be a first edition of each, which the publisher may cite on the copyright page, such as: "First mass market paperback edition". The first edition of a facsimile reprint is the reprint publisher's first edition, but not the first edition of the work itself. The Independent Online Booksellers Association has ''A First Edition Primer'' that discusses several aspects of identifying first editions including publishing and specific publishers way of designating first editions. ===Bibliographical definition=== The classic explanation of edition was given by [[Fredson Bowers]] in ''Principles of Bibliographical Description'' (1949). Bowers wrote that an edition is "the whole number of copies printed at any time or times from substantially the same setting of type-pages," including "all issues and variant states existing within its basic type-setting, as well as all impressions." Publishers often use the same typesetting for the [[hardcover]] and [[Paperback#Trade paperback|trade paperback]] versions of a book. These books have different covers, the [[title page]] and copyright page may differ, and the page margin sizes may differ (same ''type area'', smaller ''trim''), but to a bibliographer they are the same edition. From time to time, readers may observe an error in the text (or, in the days of metal type, a piece of broken type), and report these to the publisher. The publisher typically keeps these "reprint corrections" in a file pending demand for a new print run of the edition, and before the new run is printed, they will be entered. The method of entry depends on the method of typesetting. For [[Letterpress printing|letterpress metal]], it typically meant resetting a few characters or a line or two. For [[Linotype machine|linotype]], it meant casting a new line for any line with a change in it. With film, it involved cutting out a bit of the film and inserting a new bit. In an electronic file, it means entering the changes digitally. Such minor changes do not constitute a new edition, but introduce typographical variations within an edition, which are of interest to collectors. ===Collectors' definition=== [[File:Tristram Shandy First edition spines.jpg|thumb|First editions of [[Laurence Sterne]]'s [[The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman|Tristram Shandy]] ]] A common complaint of book collectors is that the bibliographer's definition is used in a book-collecting context. For example, [[J. D. Salinger]]'s ''[[The Catcher in the Rye]]'' {{as of|2016|lc=y}} remains in print in hardcover. The type is the same as the 1951 first printing, therefore all hardcover copies are, for the bibliographer, the first edition. Collectors would use the term for the first printing only. First edition most often refers to the first commercial publication of a work between its own covers, even if it was first printed in a periodical: the complete text of [[Ernest Hemingway]]’s ''[[The Old Man and the Sea]]'' appeared in the September 1, 1952, issue of ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'', yet the generally accepted "first" edition is the hardcover book [[Charles Scribner's Sons|Scribner]]’s published on September 8, 1952. The term "first trade edition," refers to the earliest edition of a book offered for sale to the general public in book stores. For example, [[Upton Sinclair]]'s 1906 novel ''[[The Jungle]]'' was published in two variant forms. A "Sustainers' Edition", published by the Jungle Publishing Company, was sent to subscribers who had advanced funds to Sinclair. The first trade edition was published by [[Doubleday, Page]] to be sold in bookstores. Many book collectors place maximum value on the earliest bound copies of a book—promotional [[advance copy|advance copies]], bound galleys, uncorrected proofs, and advance reading copies sent by publishers to book reviewers and [[bookstore|booksellers]]. It is true that these are rarer than the production copies; but given that these were not printed from a different setting of type (just the opposite; the main purpose of galleys and proofs is to double-check the typeset matter that will be used for production), they are not different editions. ===Publisher definitions=== Publishers use "first edition" according to their own purposes, and consequently among them the designation is used very inconsistently. The "first edition" of a trade book may be the first iteration of the work printed by the publisher in question or the first iteration of the work that includes a specific set of illustrations or editorial commentary. This means that a "second edition" and subsequent "third edition" will not entail a huge shift from the initial edition but simply contain updates and revisions required with time. Publishers of non-fiction, academic works, and [[textbook]]s generally distinguish between revisions of the text of the work, by typically citing the dates of the first and latest editions of the work in the copyright page. Exceptions to this [[rule of thumb]] include denominating as a "second edition" a new textbook that has a different format, title, or author because a previous textbook that shares only the same subject matter as the "second edition" is considered the first edition. The reason for this stretch of the definition is often for the short-term marketing advantage of the new textbook, because, although first editions are often considered more valuable than later editions to book collectors, being a subsequent edition of a previous textbook gives the impression that the textbook denominated as a subsequent edition is more authoritative.
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