First Edition Books

About First Edition Books

The first edition is a book's first printing run. For some titles, this can be as many as 50,000 copies. But for older books, or books originally published by small imprints, the first run may have been as few as 100 copies. First editions often gain value if the book was changed for the second printing, e.g. with new prefaces or chapters, or text corrections. Note that some first editions are hard to distinguish from subsequent printings, especially in older books.


Interviews & Articles

An Interview With American Cookbook Expert and Rare Book Curator Peter Berg

Special collections is where we keep non-circulating rare materials which have to be used in the reading room… [more]

An Interview With Children’s Book Curator Rita Smith

I started working as the curator of the Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature in 1994, but I’… [more]

Guest Column: Bookplate (Exlibris) Collecting Basics

Bookplate mania in America and England peaked from 1890 to about 1920. That's when the really great collectio… [more]

An Interview With Silver Bookmark Collector Howie Schecter

I’m a packrat, so in 1995, I was itching to collect something. I went around to local flea markets here bec… [more]



Best of the Web (“Hall of Fame”)

Google Book Search

Google Book Search

Want to do one quick search and pull up the mother lode of vintage books? Try Google Book Search, a database filled… [read review or visit site]

Baldwin Library of Childrens Literature

Baldwin Library of Childrens Literature

If you’re interested in collectible childrens books, check out this special digital collection from the Universit… [read review or visit site]

Feeding America

Feeding America

This archive of 76 influential American cookbooks from the late 1700s to early 1900s, assembled by the Michigan St… [read review or visit site]

Gallery of Book Trade Labels

Gallery of Book Trade Labels

Greg Kindall's collection of over 2100 colorful and historic book labels, pasted into books by publishers, printers… [read review or visit site]

Vintage Kids' Books My Kid Loves

Vintage Kids' Books My Kid Loves

This great blog, by an anonymous mom in Texas, is an ongoing bibliography of hundreds of vintage childrens books, c… [read review or visit site]

Vintage Cookbooks Photo Pool

Vintage Cookbooks Photo Pool

This Flickr photo pool features over 2,000 photos and scans of vintage cookbooks and old recipes from the 1940s to … [read review or visit site]

Rare Karate Book Collection

Rare Karate Book Collection

This visually interesting and highly specialized collection from the Hawaii Karate Museum focuses on rare and histo… [read review or visit site]

Czech Book Covers

Czech Book Covers

This Smithsonian microsite showcases Czech avant-garde book cover designs from the 1920s and 30s, complete with hig… [read review or visit site]

Bookscans.com

Bookscans.com

Bruce Black's gallery of paperback book covers from the 1940s and 50s. With help from numerous contributors, he's a… [read review or visit site]


Got a site to suggest? Let us know.




Clubs & Associations: Books


Other Great Reference Sites: Books

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Top eBay Auctions  Help | Get weekly First Edition Books email

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Na Narcotics Anonymous Red Commemorative 1st Edition Ba$1,136 Ends Wednesday 10 bids 21 watchers
The Little Red Book Alcoholics First Edition 1946 Rare$987.81 Ends Tuesday 9 bids 12 watchers
Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain 1885 *1st/1st/1st State* Nr$810.00 Ends Sunday 36 bids 63 watchers
Winston Churchill Signed 1st The Second World War 6vols$680.67 Ends Sunday 15 bids 23 watchers
James Joyce Dubliners, 1st Edition, Grant Richards 1914$676.00 Ends Tuesday 3 bids 20 watchers
1852 First Edition Slavery Uncle Tom's Cabin Civil War$532.00 Ends in 3 hours 31 bids 91 watchers
Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book First Edition Sixth Print$510.00 Ends Friday 4 bids 11 watchers
Bobbsey Twins ~ True First ~ 1904 Mershon ~ Stratemeyer$500.00 Ends Monday 9 bids 9 watchers
The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald 1925 1st Edition$499.99 Ends Monday 1 bid 17 watchers
Stools And Bottles Alcoholics Aa First Edition 1955$482.00 Ends Tuesday 10 bids 7 watchers
Joseph Heller..catch 22..true 1st/1st Dj Signed Nice$460.00 Ends Monday 14 bids 28 watchers
Dennis Wheatley First Edition Signed Autographed$415.23 Ends in 19 hours 32 bids 7 watchers
John Steinbeck The Pastures Of Heaven 1932 First First$399.00 Ends Sunday 1 bid 4 watchers
1985 Gnostic 1st Edition Blood Meridian Cormac Mccarthy$355.00 Ends Tuesday 13 bids 35 watchers
Australia~antarctic Explorer 2vol Maps~mawson Rare 1st$330.00 Ends Sunday 8 bids 7 watchers
1894 The Jungle Book Rudyard Kipling First Edition 1st$330.00 Ends in 3 hours 26 bids 54 watchers
Weegee - Naked City - New York - 1st Ed. -1945 - Hc Dj$330.00 Ends Sunday 10 bids 17 watchers
Hemingway, Old Man & The Sea, 1st Edn/1st Print With Dj$305.00 Ends Sunday 9 bids 16 watchers
Miles Burton - Death At The Cross Roads - 1933 1st Ed.$305.00 Ends in 18 mins 25 bids 20 watchers
Miles Burton - Murder Unrecognised 1955 1st Ed W/dj$305.00 Ends in 1 hour 10 bids 19 watchers
Harry Clarke Fairy Tales Of Charles Perrault 1922 1st$305.00 Ends Sunday 5 bids 16 watchers
Gallery Of Girls : Coles Phillips : 1911 1st : Nr Fine $290.64 Ends in 19 hours 1 bid 2 watchers
The Hobbit 1946 1st/4th Printing Dj In Brodart Scarce!!$280.00 Ends Friday 12 bids 14 watchers
Bernard Cornwell *sharpe's Company* 1st Ed 1982 Collins$274.05 Ends in 20 hours 24 bids 31 watchers
Extremely Rare First Edition Arthur Rackham Peter Pan$265.74 Ends Monday 23 bids 85 watchers
Signed 1st Ed! Hunt For Red October By Clancy Valour-it$250.00 Ends in 22 hours 1 bid 1 watcher
Alexander Pope Works 1717 & 1735 2 Vols Portrait 1st Nr$212.50 Ends Thursday 4 bids 25 watchers
Giles Annual First Series - 1st 1946 - Nice Condition$207.61 Ends Tuesday 20 bids 14 watchers
Savrola, Winston Churchill, 1st British Edition, 1900.$207.61 Ends in 20 hours 8 bids 11 watchers
Mastering French Cooking Signed Julia Child 1st Vol 2$203.01 Ends Sunday 5 bids 20 watchers
Biggles Sees Too Much/w E Johns/1st Ed/rare/vg/dj$200.00 Ends Saturday 1 bid 5 watchers
Ian Fleming-1st Ed-thunderball-first Imp James Bond$187.68 Ends in 20 hours 11 bids 51 watchers
Edmund Hillary High Adventure - Signed 1st 1955 + Photo$182.70 Ends Tuesday 1 bid 4 watchers
Tollius Epistolae Itinerariae 1700 Hungary 1st Ed Nores$182.50 Ends Thursday 13 bids 9 watchers
Sulamith Wulfing Band Xvii, Dwarf People, 1st, Rare$182.50 Ends in 19 hours 5 bids 9 watchers
The Marvelous Land Of Oz Frank Baum 1904 1st Ed$178.00 Ends Monday 21 bids 16 watchers
Lewis Carroll, Through The Looking Glass, 1st/1st/1872$177.51 Ends Monday 11 bids 17 watchers
Very Rare Jessie M King Defence Of Guenevere 1904 1st$174.50 Ends Sunday 12 bids 28 watchers
Walter Crane At His Art Nouveau Best : Scarce 1906 1st$166.07 Ends in 20 hours 1 bid 13 watchers
Herman Melville Narrative Marquesas Islands 1846 First$157.50 Ends Wednesday 2 bids 17 watchers
Scarce Arthur Rackham Book Of Pictures 1913 Us 1st$157.50 Ends in 20 hours 15 bids 84 watchers
Complete Sing Spell Read And Write Prek-1st Grade Cd$153.01 Ends in 21 hours 17 bids 15 watchers
Rare 1935 Salvador Dali 1st. Ed. Conquest Of Irrational$153.01 Ends Sunday 6 bids 9 watchers
The White Company. A. Conan Doyle. 1901,1st Newnes.pbk.$152.80 Ends in 13 hours 4 bids 4 watchers
Sitting Bull War Chief Crazy Horse American Indian 1st$152.50 Ends in 3 hours 18 bids 36 watchers
(4) J.d. Salinger Catcher In The Rye 1st/1st H/c 1951$152.50 Ends Wednesday 9 bids 16 watchers
Gone With The Wind Signed First Margaret Mitchell 1936 $152.50 Ends in 19 hours 12 bids 19 watchers
Herman Melville, The Confidence Man, 1st/1857$152.50 Ends Monday 2 bids 11 watchers
Faraday-signed Researches In Electricity 1840 1st Ed.$151.00 Ends Friday 13 bids 11 watchers
Richard Avedon American West Photography 1st Ed 1985$150.00 Ends Sunday 2 bids 3 watchers
Zane Grey An American Angler In Australia 1937 1st Ed.$149.99 Ends in 16 hours 1 bid 7 watchers
Scarce Arthur Rackham Zankiwank & Bletherwitch 1896 1st$147.50 Ends Sunday 5 bids 17 watchers
Thomas Hardy-1st Ed-desperate Remedies-first Us Ed Rare$144.50 Ends in 21 hours 13 bids 27 watchers
The Lost Symbol By Dan Brown Signed 1st Edition Hc Nr!$142.49 Ends Monday 2 bids 5 watchers
John Steinbeck, Grapes Of Wrath, 1st/1st/dj/1939$140.50 Ends Tuesday 7 bids 24 watchers

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