Is My Elmer a First Edition?

The points of issue

• The true first is the 1968 Dennis Dobson quarto, with colour illustrations throughout by the author including the rear endpapers, bound in red cloth-covered boards lettered on the spine and issued in a pictorial dust wrapper (Jonkers Rare Books
• Rooke Books/PBFA; Dominic Winter lot 678, "original red boards" in jacket)
• It contains the original, longer, un-redrawn artwork and text
• No dealer or auction record consulted cites an edition statement, printing statement or number line, so identification rests on the Dennis Dobson imprint and the 1968 date on the title/copyright page together with the red-cloth-and-jacket format
• Price present at the flap is a jacket-integrity point only; most surviving copies are price-clipped
• Caution on binding: copies in glazed colour-illustrated boards without a jacket have been catalogued by Dominic Winter as an early Dobson reprint of circa 1970, and the same house catalogued an apparently identical glazed-boards copy as "the printed pricet edition, 1968" in another sale, so a jacketless glazed-boards copy should not be assumed to be the first printing

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 UK 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?

Single UK edition; there was no simultaneous or near-simultaneous American edition, so the Dobson 1968 is the only first. The census claim is confirmed. The familiar 1989 Andersen Press Elmer is a re-drawn and slightly shortened re-issue — pictorially and textually a different book, a "first thus" trap, not the first edition — and it is the 1989 version that made the character internationally famous, so it is common while the 1968 Dobson is genuinely scarce (Dominic Winter noted it had not seen another first at auction; COPAC records very few UK institutional copies).

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

Dominic Winter records an early Dennis Dobson reprint of circa 1970 in original glazed colour-illustrated boards, without jacket — the most likely thing to be mis-sold as the first. The 1989 Andersen Press re-issue and its very many subsequent printings are the reprints most often mistaken for the first; they carry the redrawn illustrations, which is the quickest tell. No book-club issue of the 1968 Dobson is documented in the sources consulted.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Elmer a first edition?

A first edition of Elmer by David McKee (Dennis Dobson) is identified by: The true first is the 1968 Dennis Dobson quarto, with colour illustrations throughout by the author including the rear endpapers, bound in red cloth-covered boards lettered on the spine and issued in a pictorial dust wrapper (Jonkers Rare Books; Rooke Books/PBFA; Dominic Winter lot 678, "original red boards" in jacket).

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). Single UK edition; there was no simultaneous or near-simultaneous American edition, so the Dobson 1968 is the only first.

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

Dominic Winter records an early Dennis Dobson reprint of circa 1970 in original glazed colour-illustrated boards, without jacket — the most likely thing to be mis-sold as the first. The 1989 Andersen Press re-issue and its very many subsequent printings are the reprints most often mistaken for the first; they carry the redrawn illustrations, which is the quickest tell. No book-club issue of the 1968 Dobson is documented in the sources consulted.

I have a first edition of Elmer — 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.