I’ve googled and searched to no avail. I THINK i might have a first edition version of “The Martian Chronicles”. I was roaming around a used book store about 18 months ago and picked it up for 3 bucks.
I think it may be worth more than 3 bucks, and have been afraid to read it ever since. I don’t know how to positively identify it as a first-edition valuable book, but I’m sure some of you can point me in the direction I need to go.
It seems to be in excellent condition, however it is missing the dustjacket.
It was published by doubleday & company, inc
garden city, n.y.
As far as I been able to find out, it was first printed in 1950. A few pages in it contains this:
“Copyright 1946, 1948, 1949, 1950 by Ray Bradbury
All Rights Reserved
Printed in the United States
at
The Country Life Press, Garden City, N.Y.”
Where do I go to find out if this is worth anything? If it is, great, if not, I’ll read and enjoy it. Thanks!
Ordinarily, I would say it’s not because of the multiple dates. However, IIRC, Martian Chronicles contains multiple stories, correct? The stories were probably published first in magazines and then compiled into one book, which has its own publication dates.
According to the Bradbury pages I’ve been looking at, The Martian Chronicles was indeed first published in 1950 by Doubleday. However, the value of first editions drops drastically when the dust jacket is missing.
One thing you want to do is look at the outside back cover of the book—check for any indentation that looks like a shaped stamp of some kind. If a stamp is there, that indicates that it is a book club edition, which basically means it’s worth the $3 you paid and nothing more.
Having done a bit more poking around, it also appears that Doubleday typically indicates whether a book is a first edition by putting “First Edition” on the same page where all the other publication info appears. Also, there should be a line of numbers or letters—something like “1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9”. If the number “1” or letter “A” doesn’t appear in the string, that indicates that the book is not in its first printing.
What Booklover said - DD states that they use the words “first edition” on the copyright page. Sometimes they use a countdown (the 10 9 8 7… row of numbers), in which case you would have to see the #1 present.
Also - lacking a dust jacket reduces the value by at least 80% - we can discuss how silly that is, but in collectibles (any collectibles) condition is everything and dj’s are the most likely things to be missing or ripped up.
So - if it IS a first, it still might be worth $100 or more depending on the condition of the book, so your $3 would’ve still gone a long way…
You should email Exapno Mapcase - he has an extensive sci-fi collection of firsts and could tell you the specifics. I have a few sci-fi firsts, like Dune (don’t even get me started about how to figure out if that is a true first - ugh.) and Ender’s Game, but only a handful.
That is correct. Many of the stories were published in the pulps before, and those dates sound correct. I could look up the original publication dates of the stories in my Day index if needed.
The Science Fiction Book Club began in 1953 or 1954, so it would not be from there. I doubt very much that the mainstream book clubs (which might have only been the Book of the Month Club back then) would have picked up the Martian Chronicles. They did pick up Arrthur C. Clarkes The Exploration of Space (non-fiction) and that made a tremendous splash.
More likely would be that one of the specialty publishers, like Gnome Press, would have published it first, but that should show up on the Bradbury pages. I could look that up in the Tuck Encyclopedia.
Thanks for your reply, booklover. As you have already guessed, it does appear that the original short stories were published elsewhere, and I am pretty sure that this book was not published before 1950.
I can see no stamps indicating a book club book.
Also, I’m familiar with the line of numbers in books, but this one does not have one. It only has, on the line you would expect the line of numbers to be on, this:
“Copyright 1946, 1948, 1949, 1950 by Ray Bradbury
All Rights Reserved
Printed in the United States
at
The Country Life Press, Garden City, N.Y.”
Well, what is weird is that there is no standard copyright page. As far as copyright pges go in 2004. I apologize for being hyper-specific, and thank you all for your advice. But absent the scanner sitting gathering dust in my closet… This is what the book says:
When I open it, both pages are blanks. TURN PAGE
left: blank
right: THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES
Turn page
left: blank
right: picture of rocket ship lifting off from book, THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES by Ray Bradbury
DOUBLEDAY & COMPANY, INC.
Garden City, N.Y.
Turn Page
left: The characters and inidents blah blah blah. The lines from “There Will Come Soft Rains” blah blah. “Copyright 1946, 1948, 1949, 1950 by Ray Bradbury
All Rights Reserved
Printed in the United States
at
The Country Life Press, Garden City, N.Y.”
right: for my wife MARGUERITE with all my love
Then the stories start. See what I mean about no standard index pages?
Voyager, some of the sellers on ABE are claiming that they have book club editions from 1950. It looks like the first book club edition has blue boards, whereas the non-book club edition has either green or gray boards.
I wonder if perhaps Country Life Press is the book club imprint for Doubleday. It does seem strange that the line of numbers is not there.