posted on June 27, 2001 07:54:00 AM
Perhaps someone can help here. I have a book that I *think* might be a book club edition, but have never seen one marked like this.
It is Katherine Hepburn's "The Making of the African Queen." It is a *stated* first edition. However, there is no price given on the dust jacket, which has FPT on the upper left corner inside flap at the front, and 9/87 (which is the year the book was published) at the bottom inside flap at the back.
I looked it up on bookfinder.com & find many sellers saying "price clipped" on *their* volumes...so I wonder--is my copy a BCE?
posted on June 27, 2001 08:31:49 AM
Well I'm not sure what FPT means but the book was published by Knopf and I've never seen a standard over the counter book by Knopf that didn't have a price on the dj.
So it's probably is a book club edition. Now that does't mean it's a bad book. Non fiction BCE's are still very sellable. Only those who collect first edition fiction get upset with BCE's because they want the very first printing of the first edition of their favorite authors.
Now about book club editions keep in mind with the major publishing houses -- Harpers, Viking, Knopf, Putnam, etc. etc. etc. you will always find a price on the dj. The university presses and some small publishers don't usually have prices on the dj's so the stores where the book is sold can put their own price on it. Also some of the reprint publishers don't price there dj's such as Bonanza or Grossett & Dunlap. There is a lot more to identifing BCE editions but the info mentioned above will get you through about 70% or 80% of the questionable books you will run across in the next few years.
posted on June 27, 2001 10:17:53 AM
Hi, bunnicula - I have a First Edition of The Making of the African Queen; the dustjacket has the markings you mention (FPT, and 9/87), and it has the price 15.95 on the dustjacket.
There is some excellent, very thorough information on identifying BCE's at the tomfolio site - several of the sellers have contributed, and I gather there will be more information added from others. It is the most detailed, thorough information I have seen online.
edited to say - I did not realize sadie had already posted the tomfolio information! I should read more carefully
[ edited by kudzurose on Jun 27, 2001 10:19 AM ]
posted on June 27, 2001 10:42:47 AM
IS TOMFOLIO the book co-op ??
i went up there and searched for books,found none,so i search for words like BOOK,AT,THE,A and the search engine returned no results.
it turned out they are doing a big data base reorganisation!!
