Is My The Languages of Pao a First Edition?

The points of issue

• First edition: New York, Avalon Books (Thomas Bouregy & Co.), 1958; octavo, cloth, issued in a pictorial dust jacket illustrated by Ric Binkley — the Binkley jacket is the surest single check, since no later edition carries it
• Cited as Hewett and Mallett, The Work of Jack Vance, A8
• Avalon used no number line and no edition statement on the copyright page; the publisher's recorded practice is that Avalon does not normally reprint and that later printings would be noted, so the Avalon/Bouregy imprint, the 1958 date and the Binkley jacket carry the identification
• Price present at the flap; dealers consistently record slight colour fade to the jacket's spine lettering ink and rubbing at spine ends, and price-clipped copies are common
• As with Big Planet, the Avalon first contains a cut text — Avalon trimmed its books to a uniform house length

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 true first: Avalon Books (New York), 1958. Britain trailed by sixteen years and arrived only in wrappers — Mayflower (Granada) paperback, 21 March 1974, 157 pp. — so there is no competing British hardcover first. Two first-thus traps bracket the Avalon, in opposite directions. Backward: a shorter version ran in Satellite Science Fiction (December 1957), which precedes the book but is a periodical, not an edition of the novel. Forward: the full restored text was not printed until Underwood/Miller (San Francisco and Columbia, PA), 1979 — 500 copies, of which 389 were unnumbered and 111 numbered and signed by Vance and jacket artist Joe Pearson — catalogued by dealers as "first edition thus" and the first printing of the full restored text, not the first edition.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club printing of the Avalon edition is documented in the sources consulted. Avalon's market was libraries, so ex-library copies are the routine trap rather than club copies. Rule out the Mayflower/Granada paperback (1974), the Underwood/Miller 1979 limited (a "first thus" carrying the restored text), and later paperback and small-press reissues. Any cloth copy lacking the Avalon Books / Thomas Bouregy imprint, the 1958 date and the Ric Binkley jacket is not the first.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of The Languages of Pao a first edition?

A first edition of The Languages of Pao by Jack Vance (Avalon Books / Thomas Bouregy & Co.) is identified by: First edition: New York, Avalon Books (Thomas Bouregy & Co.), 1958; octavo, cloth, issued in a pictorial dust jacket illustrated by Ric Binkley — the Binkley jacket is the surest single check, since no later edition carries it.

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 true first: Avalon Books (New York), 1958.

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's market was libraries, so ex-library copies are the routine trap rather than club copies. Rule out the Mayflower/Granada paperback (1974), the Underwood/Miller 1979 limited (a "first thus" carrying the restored text), and later paperback and small-press reissues. Any cloth copy lacking the Avalon Books / Thomas Bouregy imprint, the 1958 date and the Ric Binkley jacket is not the first.

I have a first edition of The Languages of Pao — 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.