Is My Emphyrio a First Edition?

The points of issue

• First edition: Garden City, New York, Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1969; octavo, 261 pp., cloth, issued in a pictorial jacket with the price present at the flap
• The controlling point is the Doubleday statement: "First Edition" printed on the copyright page beneath the copyright notice — Doubleday's documented practice from the 1920s through 2000 was to state "First Edition" (or "First Printing") on the copyright page and to carry no statement at all on later printings, so a Doubleday-imprint copy lacking that line is a later printing
• Doubleday additionally printed a gutter code — a letter for the year of manufacture plus a number for the week — at the foot of the last page of text from mid-1958 to mid-1987, and K is the 1969 year letter (corroborated by dated 1969 Doubleday examples such as the "28K" code)
• The gutter code dates the sheets only: because Doubleday applied it to trade and club printings alike, a K code does not by itself prove a trade first
• No first-state text error is documented in the sources consulted; ex-library copies with copyright-page and textblock stamps are common

How Doubleday & Company marked a first edition

• Mid-1958–early 1959: numerical gutter code (1–52) on the last page of text indicating the WEEK of printing. Early 1959–1987: added a LETTER code before the week code indicating the YEAR.

Full Doubleday & Company first-edition guide →

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. Check for a number line or dated printing — the lowest number present is the printing; a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the tell.
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 true first: Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1969 — the key Vance hardcover of the period, with no prior magazine serialization to complicate precedence. Britain came late and in wrappers: the first UK edition is the Coronet (Hodder & Stoughton) paperback of 1980, so there is no competing British hardcover first and no UK-vs-US contest to adjudicate. Later Dell paperback, Underwood-Miller, and Millennium/Gollancz issues are reprints or "first thus."

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

Run the Doubleday club tells: "Book Club Edition" printed at the foot of the front jacket flap, no price on the jacket, a five-digit code on the jacket's back panel, a small blind stamp (square, dot, circle, triangle or maple leaf) debossed into the lower rear board near the spine, thinner bulk on cheaper paper, and boards sometimes covered in paper rather than cloth. The trap that catches buyers is that Doubleday book-club copies can carry over the trade copyright page — including the "First Edition" line — so the statement alone never settles it; the jacket flap and rear board decide. No separate Science Fiction Book Club printing of Emphyrio surfaced in the sources consulted, but any copy showing the tells above is not the trade first regardless.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Emphyrio a first edition?

A first edition of Emphyrio by Jack Vance (Doubleday & Company) is identified by: First edition: Garden City, New York, Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1969; octavo, 261 pp., cloth, issued in a pictorial jacket with the price present at the flap.

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

Check the copyright page. A stated first edition, a number line ending in 1, or a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the key. US precedes and is the true first: Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1969 — the key Vance hardcover of the period, with no prior magazine serialization to complicate precedence.

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

Run the Doubleday club tells: "Book Club Edition" printed at the foot of the front jacket flap, no price on the jacket, a five-digit code on the jacket's back panel, a small blind stamp (square, dot, circle, triangle or maple leaf) debossed into the lower rear board near the spine, thinner bulk on cheaper paper, and boards sometimes covered in paper rather than cloth. The trap that catches buyers is that Doubleday book-club copies can carry over the trade copyright page — including the "First Ed

I have a first edition of Emphyrio — 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.