THIS FIRST EDITION BUSINESS.

Otago Witness, Issue 4048, 13 October 1931, Page 64

THIS FIRST EDITION BUSINESS.

Collecting is a widespread habit generally considered to be a virtue. This conception is usually a negative one because the benefits to the individual are not often apparent, but rest, presumably, on the idea that if people are not busy forming some sort of collection, whether of Alpine flora or of cigarette cards, the devil will surely find dirty work for these frail-minded creatures to undertake. It is for this reason that the latent collecting habit is encouraged in the young, though various other ‘'excuses are put forward in favour of it. Collecting postage stamps is said to help the teaching of geography, the collecting of coins supposedly encourages thrift, while to amass countless cigarette cards and arrange them neatly in series must sharpen the wits. Generally the whole business of collecting is a harmless manifestation of the urge which each man has to go one (or more) better than his neighbour, and to possess something which another has not. At its

w’orst it is a mild but pernicious mania which inevitably becomes an infernal nuisance to the collector’s friends and, on occasion, leads the addict away from the paths of rectitude. Time was when books were collected as books, that is to say as vehicles of know'ledge, and not, as appears so often now to be the case, as objects whose value is assessed only on their rarity. Would that such were the case now. But this most admirable form of the collecting habit has to a considerable extent been superseded by the collection of books not as books, but as first editions, the definition of which becomes increasingly difficult. We are faced with first editions, first English editions, first American editions, first signed editions and so on, and it is from this point that a pleasant hobby may become a serious nuisance or an unhealthy mania.

Let us adinit gratefully and ungrudgingly that in many cases authors, particularly-- some young authors who are just beginning to make their way, benefit very considerably by being collected as first editions. Let us adinit further that if the author benefits, so also must his publisher. To sell a book to a collector who does not read it is just as profitable as to sell it to any other person, and we believe that at any rate some collectors do read books, for otherwise it is impossible to account for the fact that thoroughly bad books are not collected.

It is not against the genuine collector that we have a grievance, but rather against the book-speculator—an unpleasant parasite who has his being on the outskirts of the book trade and who preys upon the collector. He it is who causes sudden and violent convulsions in the market and upsets all reasonable calculations made by the publisher of the possible demand for first or signed or limited editions by ordering far more copies of a book than he really wants in order to get an unfair proportion of th? total edition; and he it is who is the cause of the friction between bookseller and publisher which unfortunately, but inevitably, follows the subscription of a limited edition. It was an attempt to check such operations which recently led the publishers of Henry Williamson’s “ The Village Book ” to issue an edition limited by the booksellers themselves, by printing exactly the number of copies for which orders had been received up to a given date. We recently heard of a very good example of the length to which the unscrupulous speculator will go in order

o obtain a “ first issue.” The Nonesuch

Press printed an edition of 3000 copies of a book the published price of which was to be 8s 6d- When the first copies came in from the binders the proprietors of the press decided that they’ had made a bad mistake in the paper which they

had chosen for the book. It was too thin, very transparent, and quite unsuitable for the type in which the book was printed. They decided therefore to destroy' the entire edition and to reprint on a more appropriate paper. Very shortly afterwards an advertisement

appeared in a trade paper offering £2O for a single copy of the imperfect and unpublished edition. It is clear, of course, that if any 7 copies were sold in this way they could only 7 have been obtained by dishonest means, since no copies whatever of the original printing were issued through the proper channels. And what an incitement to dis-

honesty ; £2O a copy and no questions asked! But would any genuine collector want such a book —admittedly 7 a poor thing, so bad that it could not be published—under such circumstances?

While acknowledging the benefits which certain authors derive from the fact that their first editions (or first issues or what-not) are collected, and recognising the fact that if they are helped, so are their publishers, it is very difficult for a publisher not to become very irritated on occasion with the whole ’Business. It savours rather of professionalism in sport, and is distasteful for the same reasons. Constantly orders arrive at publishers’ offices for “ one copy 7 of X Y Z, first edition only,” for ail the world as if a variety of editions were always kept in stock so that you had only to pay your money and take your choice. A publisher’s job is to sell books not museum pieces. The publisher is in the unfortunate position of always being in the wrong, whatever he does. If he prints a small first edition of a book by 7 a “ collected author ” he is reviled by the booksellers who do not get as many copies as they want. If he prints too large a number 7 the book will not appreciate in value and that author will slump as “a collector’s piece.” Thus the more popular an

author becomes, the less value will his

first editions possess, unless the publisher resorts to the device of printing two or more editions simultaneously. Yet this, which would probably satisfy the majority of reasonable neoulc, would

most certainly be roundly condemned by many 7 others as “ faking.” So far we have not distinguished betw’een first editions and limited or large paper editions published in addition to (he ordinary editions, since in many respects the problems which confront the publisher in dealing with them are common to both. But there are differences; These limited editions were invented partly in an attempt to rationalise the collecting habit by providing for the collector something obviously different from, and superior to, the ordinary or trade edition. Such books may be printed on paper of a larger size and better quality 7 than that used in the ordinary edition, with handsome —if not excessive—margins; they may 7 be bound in vellum, morocco, or buckram, and often carry the signature of the author at the beginning. The inventors had also, quite frankly, a further object in view; they had for long watched the prices of first editions, sold originally for a few shillings, go soaring up in a short while to as many 7 pounds, while neither author nor publisher profited in any 7 way 7 from these increased values. But both these deserving parties take a share in the profits which result from the sale of a small numbered edition which can be sold at four or five times the price of the ordinary edition. That this practice of issuing special signed or limited editions is open to abuse, there is no question—it hag on occasion been abused. Special editions have been published which look more like three and sixpenny reprints than fitting objects to put in the collection of an amateur. But it is somewhat surprising to read in the catalogue of a rare-book dealer a vehement attack on the whole practice of issuing limited editions. Two main objections are raised. In the first place some publishers are alleged to have committed the unpardonable crime of issuing a limited edition a day—or an hour—or so before the ordinary editions. Thus, it is argued, the limited edition becomes also the only true first edition and the dealers, instead of having only to pay 7s fid (less discount) for a “first” which may soon be sold for £7 10s, have to pay perhaps 42s (also less discount), and the chances of as swift and generous a profit are unlikely. The complaint is also made that the published prices of limited editions are very various and the values offered in matters of paper, binding, and print, most unequal. Very likely—but there is, after all, no compulsion put on anyone to buy what he considers not to be fair value for monev.

And to the layman or non-collector, it does seem rather ridiculous to read such arguments in a catalogue which contains what appear to him such absurdities as: “ 13C —Xxx Xxxx Xxx, xxx xxxxx Xxxxxxx Xxxx, 1923. “ First edition, original boards, cloth back, paper label, uncut, with dust wrapper. Cr. Bvo. . £l3 0s Od. “ The small number printed, and the perishable nature of the covers, makes really fine copies of the genuine First Edition, like this copy, very scarce.” Clearly 7 the whole business is an unreasonable affair, and it ill becomes the purveyors of such wares to wag an admonitory 7 finger at the publishers who, while they may occasionally profit by the whims of the collectors and their satellite dealers, are far more often only 7 bothered bv them.—Now and Then.