2 James Gleick first editions are documented on this shelf, from Chaos: Making a New Science (1987) to Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman (1992) across 2 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that James Gleick title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.

Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a James Gleick copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.

Chaos: Making a New Science — 1987 · VikingViking first edition (published October 29, 1987), copyright page carrying the 'First published in 1987 by Viking' statement with a full number line ending in 1 (ISBN 0-670-81178-5). Bound in black cloth over boards; the first-issue dust jacket shows the printed price on the front flap. The US Viking edition is the true first, preceding the UK (William Heinemann) edition. A later anniversary edition with a new preface is a 'first thus,' not the first edition. No book-club hardcover of note; the usual confusion is later Viking printings and the anniversary reissue. The complete number line ending in 1 plus the priced first-issue jacket and black cloth binding identify the first printing.
Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman — 1992 · Pantheon BooksBlack cloth binding with deckled fore-edge. Copyright page states First Edition with the number line. First-state dust jacket with the price intact on the front flap. Illustrated with black-and-white plates; about 532 pages. US Pantheon Books (New York) true first, 1992. Book-club issue lacks the stated First Edition and is unpriced.

More Nonfiction & Memoir shelves: Jared Diamond, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Joan Didion, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, John L. Stephens, John McPhee.

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