Empty Mirror

a literary magazine

  • About
    • About Empty Mirror
    • Get in Touch
    • Support EM
    • Colophon
  • Submit
  • Contributors
  • Essays
  • On Literature
  • Poetry
  • Reviews
  • Art
  • Interviews
  • Beat
    • Beat Generation
    • Ted Joans Lives!
  • +
    • Fiction
    • Music & Film
    • News
    • On Writing
    • Book Collecting

Review – Guide to the Identification of First Editions

Denise Enck

Bill McBride’s Pocket Guide to the Identification of First Editions details the methods over 4,600 different publishers use to identify their first editions. For many years McBride has worked tirelessly to get the latest information, and the latest edition, the 7th, was published in 2012, so it’s very up to date.

It’s super easy to use, and small and light enough to fit in your pocket on book hunting trips.

McBride - First Edition Identification
McBride – Guide to the Identification of First Editions
Unsure whether that book at the library sale, thrift or used bookstore is a first edition? Just take a look the details on its copyright page, then pull this guide out of your pocket or purse, flip to the (alphabetized) listing for the publisher in question and – voila! – you’ll instantly have your answer. So simple.

If you buy online, it’s also great for verifying the book descriptions of sellers who claim the book they’re selling is a first edition.

I’m both a bookseller (since 2000) and collector (since the 1980s) and have found this book to have been very useful over the years. And, for even more information on first editions, check out McBride’s book, Points of Issue.

Your newfound ability to distinguish first editions from later printings will likely allow you to recoup the cost of this book very quickly!

You can buy or learn more about this book at Amazon.

Share on TwitterShare on Facebook

Denise Enck

Denise is Empty Mirror's founder and editor. She's edited several other literary magazines and small-press publications since the 1990s. When not at Empty Mirror, you can probably find her reading or writing -- or out exploring the back roads and beaches of Washington State.

Author: Denise Enck Tags: iu Category: Book Collecting February 5, 2012

You might also like:

collage copyright D. Raphael
Post-Zen, a reflection for Reilly
Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
Wankers, Burds, and Skag: Heteroglossia in Trainspotting
Artificial Paradises by Charles Baudelaire
Ten Favorite Books List Contributed by Josechu C.
William S Burroughs copyright Christiaan Tonnis http://www.flickr.com/photos/christiaan_tonnis/3678726329/
A William S. Burroughs top ten from Jed B. with his comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I accept the Privacy Policy

 

DONATE TO BLACK LIVES MATTER

BLACK LIVES MATTER

The EM newsletter

Receive fresh poetry, reviews, essays, art, and literary news every Wednesday!


Empty Mirror

Established in 2000 and edited by Denise Enck, Empty Mirror is an online literary magazine that publishes new work each Friday.

Each week EM features several poems each by one or two poets; reviews; critical essays; visual art; and personal essays.

Subscribe Submissions Support

Recent features

  • My Father’s Map
  • On Waiting
  • Seeing Las Meninas in Madrid, 1994
  • Visual poems from 23 Bodhisattvas by Chris Stephenson
  • Historical Punctum: Reading Natasha Trethewey’s Bellocq’s Ophelia and Native Guard Through the Lens of Roland Barthes’s Camera Lucida
  • Panic In The Rear-View Mirror: Exploring The Work of Richard Siken and Ann Gale
  • “Art has side effects,” I said.

Books

Biblio
© 2000–2023 D. Enck / Empty Mirror.
Copyright of all content remains with its authors.
Privacy Policy · Privacy Tools · FTC disclosures