Yesterday I stated in this thread that I’ve decided to read the Dune series by Frank Herbert, having not read them before. I also mentioned that I already own the first three books. Actually, I’ve got the first four; I need to learn to pay better attention to my books, prominently displayed on bookshelves in my bedroom.
Anyway, I acquired these books about twenty years ago. A friend of mine’s father had passed away a couple of years before, and her mom had just gotten to the point where she was going through the house and getting rid of some of the dad’s old stuff. She (the mom) had a few boxes of old hardcover books she intended to donate to the library or sell at a garage sale or something, and she let me go through them first and take what I wanted. These four Dune books, and The White Plague, were amongst the books I took. They’ve pretty much just sat on my bookshelf ever since.
So, last night as I’m going to bed, I pulled down Dune. I opened it to the title page, and noted the publishing company: Chilton. This caused a bell to go off in my head, because earlier in the evening I’d read the Wiki page on the Dune series, linked to in my other thread, which says that Chilton was the original publisher. Interesting, I thought. I turned to the copyright page, and all it says is 1965, with no other editions listed.
Wow. Obviously I’ve got an early edition here, but is it the first edition? I checked the other three books as well, and they also only have the original publication dates listed on their copyright pages.
(Sorry for the poor pictures. My camera is broken, so all I have to work with is my phone.)
Does your copy look like this one? The seller is claiming it’s the “true first edition” and the price he’s asking reflects what he thinks he’s got. Dang.
It could be.
Now make sure that in the front flap of the dust jacket it doesn’t say down low and to the right “Book Club Edition”.
I own a first edition of Dune. Yes, that could be a first.
On the back flap of the dust jacket, at the bottom, is the publisher name, Chilton. Please list all of the text under that name, specifically city names.
Bah… I didn’t think to look at that. It’s a book club edition. I should have known, since it’s smaller than the actual first editions of books I own.
Oh well.
Don’t worry – it’s probably still worth something, although I couldn’t say how much.
Typically no more than $100 bucks vs. thousands for the true first.
Oh well.
Well, that’s better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick…
It’s not like I would have sold it, anyway. It’s just that the coolness factor went in the toilet. 
I had the same experience a few months ago. The book club edition looks just like the rare and expensive first edition except that it says “book club edition”.
Funny how much people will pay for the *absence *of one line of print on the dust jacket!
Well, the book club edition is a bit smaller, too. I said earlier I should have known my copy wasn’t an original because of this… I guess I was hoping maybe in the '60s hardcovers were just that size. But Mahaloth’s quote states this isn’t the case.
You can see the size difference in the first pic in the OP. On the right is Jordan’s The Eye Of The World, which is a first edition.
I just took a look at my copy of The White Plague, which I acquired along with the Dune books, and it appears to be a first edition, too. I’m guessing these aren’t worth quite as much as a Dune original, though… if they’re worth anything at all. 
Oh, it’s worse than that - note my question upthread. IIRC my Dune first edition “points”, if here are four cities listed, it is a first edition / second state, but if it shows 2 cities listed, it is a first edition / first state and worth thousands more. Two different first editions, but valued differently because of a couple of words on the dj.
On William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, there is a typo on page 9 (I think) where the first letter of the first sentence is a bit too low. They fixed it halfway throught the first edition of maybe 1,000 copies, so there are 500 with the error (first state) and 500 corrected (second state). The first state sells for over 2x the second state…
Collectors is weird. And I say that as a collector.
I only knew to ask about the Book Club notation because I’m a collector too.
If I had a nickel for every time I saw an older Stephen King in a Goodwill or at a garage sale, and it turned out to be a Book Club version…well, you know…
Still lookin’ and hopin’ though.
