Is My The Skylark of Space a First Edition?

The points of issue

• First book edition: The Buffalo Book Company, 1946, in a printing of 500 copies
• No statement of edition or printing appears, so identification is by the Buffalo Book Company imprint and 1946 date on the title page together with the collation: octavo, pp. [1-11] 12-303 [304: blank], bound in red cloth with the front and spine panels stamped in gold; pictorial jacket, price present at the flap
• The jacket artist is not documented in the sources consulted — do not attribute it
• The O.G. Estes, Jr. illustrations were commissioned by Buffalo Book but were not used in this printing; they appear only in the 1947 Hadley reset, so an illustrated copy is not the first
• Imprint city is cited both as Providence, Rhode Island (dealer collations; the base of the Grant-Hadley firms) and as Buffalo, New York (some auction cataloguing, reflecting Kenneth Krueger's Buffalo involvement) — expect both on catalogue records

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. 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.
3. Verify this is the UK true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
4. 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.
5. 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?

The census is correct on publisher and year — Buffalo Book Company, 1946 is the true first in book form, the novel having been serialized in Amazing Stories in 1928 — but the rest of the census note is wrong and is corrected here: there is no Fantasy Press edition of The Skylark of Space. Fantasy Press (Lloyd Arthur Eshbach) published the sequels and the Lensman books, not this title, so no "revised Fantasy Press text" exists to compete. The book reprints are Hadley Publishing Company, 1947 (completely reset, with the Estes illustrations added) and F.F.F. Publishers, 1950 (245 pp.). The genuine revised-text trap is the 1958 Pyramid paperback, for which Smith reworked the novel and dropped Mrs. Lee Hawkins Garby's collaboration credit; every 1946-1950 book edition retains the Garby credit. No UK or original-language edition precedes the 1946 US first.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club issue of the 1946 Buffalo Book printing is documented in the sources consulted. The reprints to rule out are the 1947 Hadley Publishing reset — a different setting throughout, and illustrated — and the 1950 F.F.F. Publishers issue, identifiable by its shorter pagination; both carry their own imprints on the title page. Later paperback and trade reprints (including the 2001 Bison Books trade paperback, which restores the Estes illustrations) likewise name their own publishers.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of The Skylark of Space a first edition?

A first edition of The Skylark of Space by E. E. 'Doc' Smith (in collaboration with Mrs. Lee Hawkins Garby) (The Buffalo Book Company) is identified by: First book edition: The Buffalo Book Company, 1946, in a printing of 500 copies.

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. The census is correct on publisher and year — Buffalo Book Company, 1946 is the true first in book form, the novel having been serialized in Amazing Stories in 1928 — but the rest of the census note is wrong and is corrected here: there is no Fantasy Press edition of The Skylark of Space.

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

No book-club issue of the 1946 Buffalo Book printing is documented in the sources consulted. The reprints to rule out are the 1947 Hadley Publishing reset — a different setting throughout, and illustrated — and the 1950 F.F.F. Publishers issue, identifiable by its shorter pagination; both carry their own imprints on the title page. Later paperback and trade reprints (including the 2001 Bison Books trade paperback, which restores the Estes illustrations) likewise name their own publishers.

I have a first edition of The Skylark of Space — 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.