Is My Big Planet a First Edition?

The points of issue

• First edition in book form: New York, Avalon Books (Thomas Bouregy & Co.), 1957
• 8vo, 223 pp., red cloth, issued in a pictorial dust jacket with the price present at the flap
• Cited as Hewett and Mallett, The Work of Jack Vance, A5 — the standard Vance bibliography and the reference ABAA dealers quote for this title
• Avalon used no number line and no edition statement on the copyright page; the publisher's own recorded practice (as collected in Zempel and Verkler's First Editions: A Guide to Identification) is that Avalon does not normally reprint its books and that later printings would be noted
• Identification therefore rests on the Avalon Books imprint, the 1957 date, the red cloth and the correct pictorial jacket; an Avalon-imprint copy carrying any later-printing note is not the first
• The text, not the binding, is this book's real trap: the Avalon first contains a heavily cut text of roughly 47,000 words

How to confirm the first-printing statement

Publishers stated first printings differently by era. The decisive tells are a printed “First Edition/First Printing” statement, a number line whose lowest number is 1 (Random House ends at 2), or a dated first printing with no later printings listed. Paste your copyright page into the number-line decoder.

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Confirm the first-edition statement — look for “First Edition,” “First Printing,” or the publisher’s equivalent wording.
3. Read the number line — the lowest number is the printing. A line including 1 is a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2). Paste it into the decoder.
4. Verify this is the US true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
5. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
6. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

US precedes and is the only book-form first: Avalon Books (New York), 1957. Text-state trap — this title has no "true first" in the textual sense a first edition normally implies. Vance's manuscript ran perhaps 120,000 words and was cut by him to about 72,000; Startling Stories (September 1952) cut it again to roughly 52,000 for serialization; Avalon cut it a third time to about 47,000 for the 1957 hardcover. The Ace Double D-295 paperback (1958, backed with Slaves of the Klau) is a later reprint and shorter still. The magazine-length text did not reach book form until Underwood-Miller (San Francisco), 1978 — 236 pp., limited to 1,000 copies, dust jacket and interior illustrations by Stephen Hickman, with 111 copies signed by author and artist and 889 unsigned — which Currey and John W. Knott (both ABAA) correctly catalogue as "first printing of the unabridged text," i.e. a first thus, not the first edition. Collectors who want the book take the Avalon 1957; collectors who want the text take the Underwood-Miller 1978. Both are legitimately collected and should be named separately.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club printing of the Avalon edition is documented in the sources consulted. Avalon sold into the library market, so ex-library copies with stamps, pockets, spine labels and taped jackets are the routine condition trap here rather than club copies. The issues to rule out are the Ace Double D-295 paperback (1958, backed with Slaves of the Klau), the Underwood-Miller 1978 limited (a "first thus" restoring the magazine text), and the later Gollancz issues. Any copy in wrappers, or in cloth without the Avalon Books imprint and 1957 date, is not the first.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Big Planet a first edition?

A first edition of Big Planet by Jack Vance (Avalon Books / Thomas Bouregy & Co.) is identified by: First edition in book form: New York, Avalon Books (Thomas Bouregy & Co.), 1957; 8vo, 223 pp., red cloth, issued in a pictorial dust jacket with the price present at the flap.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A number line whose lowest number is 1 marks a first printing (Random House ends at 2). US precedes and is the only book-form first: Avalon Books (New York), 1957.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

No book-club printing of the Avalon edition is documented in the sources consulted. Avalon sold into the library market, so ex-library copies with stamps, pockets, spine labels and taped jackets are the routine condition trap here rather than club copies. The issues to rule out are the Ace Double D-295 paperback (1958, backed with Slaves of the Klau), the Underwood-Miller 1978 limited (a "first thus" restoring the magazine text), and the later Gollancz issues. Any copy in wrappers, or in cloth w

I have a first edition of Big Planet — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.