Zempel & Multi-Author Bibliographies: professsorbooknoodle: Zempel does not evaluate. Zempel is not a price guide or a bibliogrpahy. All Zempel does is identify, in the publisher's own words the PHYSICAL method used by the publisher to identify First Editions. Zempel does not look at authors or titles, just publishers... and just their methods, as stated by the publisher. Whether or not a publisher's purpose is different from a dealer's or a collector's is immaterial to the point of Zempel. It is my consideration that... even as vague as some publisher's have been in terms of statements ... and there are some conflicting or confusing statements from within a single publisher... but despite all this, the publisher's statement stands as definitive ... on method ... short of bibliographic research proving otherwise. It would be good to memorize the info in Zempel, or, if one's memory process does not work that way, keep a copy on hand. Better to keep a copy on hand .... no way anyone can memorize the entire book, although there are certain publishers whose methods it behooves one to be familiar with. (leave that with at the end!) For the book in hand, after verifying the publisher's method, one often realizes that, in more cases than not, one has still not verified the edition, printing or possible state of the title (Zempel will say nothing about states). One then proceeds to the title specific information, and evaluation. This is where Van Allen Bradley, the Ahearns and any number of author-specific or genre-specific price-guides and bibliographies enter the picture. These price guides and bibliographies may well conflict with the publisher's statements. That is okay. It will happen. It just means a little more care need sot be taken vis-a-vis write-ups or research. If there is conflict, I would follow the title-specific guides over the publisher's statement, if the source of the title-specific information is verifiably solid. Ahearn's guides are good for helping to evaluate a book. They are not the last word ... no guide could be. Whatever ancillary information they offer on any specific title should be counted as a plus. Don't be afraid to mark these guides up with whatever extra or discovered information you find. Most bibliogrpahies will not bother with values, which are ephemeral. By the way it is good to familiarize oneself with BAL or the Bibliography of American Literature. this huge reference work cntains a golmine of information, including physical points. Back to Zempel ... There are, indeed a great many instances when there is not enough information given, or a period of years during which a publisher's methods may or may not have changed .... this is the provence of the bibliographer. Even then I have seen where, within a descriptive physical bibliography of a specific author's work, there was vagueness or even, complete lack of information. The Ninth Corollary to Murphy's Law states : Bibliographic information for the book in hand will be lacking from all sources. midnightbooks: One bookseller's experience - Blanck's BAL can be useful at times, but most booksellers should be able to get by nicely without forking over major bucks to park it on their shelves. So much of it just doesn't apply often enough to our daily bookselling lives. I consult it less than 10 times annually. Merle Johnson's American First Editions (4th edition) was revised and enlarged by Blanck, contains most of the issue points you'll need for important authors/titles up to 1942, and is much more affordable. On the other side of the pond, Cutler and Stiles' Modern British Authors offers comparable info for UK authors up to 1930. A book rarely mentioned in this context is Gary M. Lepper's A Bibliographical Introduction to Seventy-Five Modern American Authors. Teeming with issue points for major American writers - and both affordable and more contemporary. Thomas Lee's 20th Century First Edition Classic Fiction, 64 authors strong, is also packed with issue points and is _very_ affordable - and he did another guide focused on mysteries and adventure authors. Last time I looked he was hawking both on eBay - cheep, cheep. Two CD-format entries worth spending money on are the Ahearn's Author Price Guides and Currey's superb bibliography of SF & Fantasy first printings. I use both often. ABPC is a pricey compilation of book auction records going back decades, also pretty useful, but best accessed free o' charge in a library. http://www.bookpricescurrent.com/ Author-specific biblios are among the most helpful references, but nobody can buy them all, and most are pricey. Collect slowly. There are a number of additional relevant titles, but the key to all of this first-ID stuff, IMO, is not to rely exclusively on one source but to consult as many as possible and let the weight of scholarship tell the tale. Also, often, there are author specialists among booksellers that will help at the drop of an email. Firsts Magazine has featured many of them over the years. In any case, describing all potential points on edition-sensitive titles, whether you know if they matter or not, is what will stand you in good stead. oldbookshopnj: You can buy copies of earlier editions of Zempler/Verkel on abebooks starting at $12, and you don't need the most recent one--price is really no reason not to have it. I've often been surprised at how few U.S. book dealers use Cutler & Stiles. You can buy a copy for $10, and it gives you information on a lot of British authors--it's done in the same style as Merle Johnson. Not mentioned by midnightbooks is Bruccoli/Clark, First Printings of American Authors, 5 vols, Gale Press. Overpriced originally, as are all Gale Press books, it does have 20th century authors you will not find in any of the others. However, given a choice between spending money on that, and spending money on Ahearn's Author Price Guides, the APG would be way, way ahead. The Gale Press set can be found in quite a few libraries and should not be overlooked if you are doing library research. I find I hardly ever use Lepper--it seems as if either I have something better on the author elsewhere, or else no one cares any more. I use BAL a lot more than 10 times a year.

I am now the proud owner of Thirty Years of Arkham House: 1939-1969, and Ian Fleming: A Catalogue of a Collection, by Lain Campbell.

Both appear to have rock solid bibliographic information--in the case of Fleming including ARCs, and many reprints and PBs.

So if anyone needs help with either of these subjects just give a shout out.

Maurizio said he had a great idea. He thought there was a market for reprints of out-of-print bibliographies. I thought he was crazy! Martino Publishing

Not really.

Maurizio is just a pirate scavenger.


He photolithos books that have gone into the public domain.




I mean, if you wanted to sell the book,
you would certainly name both publishers.

http://www.advunderground.com/reference/editions.php hope that doesn't stretch the thread, but I don't trust tinyurl to remain viable over the long term This gets you to the search page of a first edition guide, searchable by publisher, browsable in alphabetical order. It references McBride and Zempel in a disclaimer that urges you to check with those sources for a final determination. I have compiled a personal database for FE identification from those sources as well as Sangraal and Ahearn's; adding to it those which I have found scouting. My brief use of this database indicates that it was compiled from McBride and Zempel. I would repeat this disclaimer: there are some publishers whose comments regarding their habits become simply a judgement call as to what they do, or don't do, to indicate a printing. Many will say "We make no designation for First Edition" in response to the question from the editors of the guide. This may mean that they never designate a first printing but do indicate reprints, it may mean that they never designate any printing, or it may mean they don't really care much about bibliographical concerns and are brushing off the query as quickly as possible without ignoring it completely. In some cases, you will have to choose what it means: if a book is valuable (again a judgement call) I will indicate it as "Assumed FE, NAP" [Assulmed first edition, no additional printings noted] and let the buyer determine if my price is acceptable. If a book appears to be extremely valuable, I will note that and continue with the disclaimer that the publisher has never indicated that they do, or do not mark reprints or do reprints. Most books are not lucky enough to see a reprint. "Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth." ~ Muhammad Ali

...Democracy cannot survive without a reasonably well-informed public" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~President Barack H. Obama, 9/9/09

zappa biblio r.o.t.s.o. zappa biblio some more .

jmgrobe (874 ) View Listings | Report Feb-26-08 American Architectural Books: A List of Books, Portfolios, and Pamphlets on Architecture and Related Subjects Published in America Before 1895. by Henry Russell Hitchcock Oversized Octavo. Cloth. 1946 3d rev. ed. Book viii, 130 p. Minneapolis, London, University of Minnesota Press; G. Cumberlege, Oxford University Press. "This bibliography is intended to serve students of American architecture of the periods between the Revolution and the end of the nineteenth century, as well as institutions and individuals who collect American architectural Books."-From the introduction. Included as descriptions of the first architectural book published in America,The British Architect, published in 1775. Hitchcock also provides collations according to the amount of detail required to distinguish editions and issues, and also according to the type of information he was able to obtain. Wherever possible the full number of plates is given, followed by the indication "pl." regardless of whether the plates are numbered or in what way, and regardless of the particular character of the material on the plates. In all 1461 titles are described. Besterman 495. Has been reprinted.

Most sellers on eBay are scam artists.

http://www.princeton.edu/~rbsc/exhibitions/online.html


From the Princeton University Rare Books and Special Collections, Fireside Library Online Exhibits:

· To the Mountains of the Moon: Mapping African Exploration, 1541-1880 - an online version of the exhibition in the Main Gallery during April-Octoboer 2007.

· Virtual Children's Books Exhibits - an online gallery from the Cotsen Children's Library showing four themes: swimming, the magic lantern show, bugs, and Beatrix Potter

· Framing the Frontier: Photographers & the American West, 1850-1920 - an online gallery based on exhibition in the Main Gallery during April-Setpember 2006.

· Hand Bookbindings from Special Collections in the Princeton University Library: Plain and Simple to Grand and Glorious - an online version of the exhibition curated by Scott Husby in the Main Gallery during November 2002 - April 2003. Website includes special magnifer for close inspection of bindings.

· Of Maps and Men: In Pursuit of a Northwest Passage - an online version of the exhibition curated by John Delaney in the Milberg Gallery during April 2004 - September 2004

· Unseen Hands: Women Printers, Binders, and Book Designers - an online version of the exhibition curated by Rebecca Davidson in the Milberg Gallery during October 2002 - April 2003

· Comic Art at Princeton University - an online cartoon exhibition curated by Henry Martin, Class of 1948

· Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library - a wide range of online exhibits highlighting audiovisual holdings from both the Public Policy Collection and University Archives

· Cruikshank Online Exhibit - an interactive exhibition of 50 drawings by illustrator and caricaturist George Cruikshank (born in 1792)

"Booksellers in the gross are taken for little better than a pack of knaves and atheists." — John Dunton