I am trying to find out how many $7.95 Callahan dust jackets were issued on the first editions of the 20,000?
I am trying to find out how many $7.95 Callahan dust jackets were issued on the first editions of the 20,000?
I am trying to find out how many $7.95 Callahan dust jackets were issued on the first editions of the 20,000?
Amazing Bob! I very nearly responded to this post saying that "nobody knows" as the topic has been discussed before without an answer. I had always assumed that the quantity of corrected $7.95 covers was part of the original 20,000.
I will update the main article to show this 'new' information
This confirms the books with corrected DJ's were in fact a 'second printing' and not just a replacement jacket. It also shows how much rarer they are!
"A real limited edition, far from being an expensive autograph stapled to a novel, is a treasure. And like all treasures do, it transforms the responsible owner into a caretaker, and being a caretaker of something as fragile and easily destroyed as ideas and images is not a bad thing but a good one...and so is the re-evaluation of what books are and what they do that necessarily follows." - Stephen King
Thanks, Bob! I was under the same impression as Simon--the third state dust jacket was part of the 20,000 copy run. Then I looked at my notes and discovered what you've posted above. I wish I knew where I first got that information. (Probably from you!)
John
The memo is interesting but still doesn't answer the question of how many of the 7500 corrected jackets ended up on first edition books; because we know that some (obviously) did. And when would that have occurred? Were there unsold pallets of first edition copies with the the Father "Cody" dj's still at Doubleday? And some poor soul went down and physically switched a few thousand dj's by hand? The book had sold well enough that a second printing was ordered so it was unlikely (at least it seems so to me) that copies were still sitting at Doubleday. When did those first edition copies end up with the corrected dj's?
I would say that ALL 7,500 were on first edition books. It seems likely (as there was no numberline) that they just put the same page block copy through the printers again. So no change to anything, just ran off another 7,500 copies.
"A real limited edition, far from being an expensive autograph stapled to a novel, is a treasure. And like all treasures do, it transforms the responsible owner into a caretaker, and being a caretaker of something as fragile and easily destroyed as ideas and images is not a bad thing but a good one...and so is the re-evaluation of what books are and what they do that necessarily follows." - Stephen King
I think I am reading the memo differently than you are. I am reading it as a second printing of books and dust jackets of 7500 copies. These books would lack the "First Edition" statement on the copyright page and have a different date code on the last page but would have the dust jackets with the correction. So, 7500 books in addition to the 20,000 first edition books.
Not saying either of us is right or wrong; just how I interpreted the memo.
I think we are reading it the same, I just think that they wouldn't have gone to the expense of changing the book itself for such a simple change on the dust jacket. The memo is also dated prior to the actual printing of the 20,000. I'm wondering if they just increased production from 20,000 to 27,500 and then put the new jackets on the extra 7500 when they were completed. I have no idea about the internal workings of publishers but I think anything that saves them money would be welcomed.
"A real limited edition, far from being an expensive autograph stapled to a novel, is a treasure. And like all treasures do, it transforms the responsible owner into a caretaker, and being a caretaker of something as fragile and easily destroyed as ideas and images is not a bad thing but a good one...and so is the re-evaluation of what books are and what they do that necessarily follows." - Stephen King
Has anyone seen a third state dust jacket NOT on a first printing? I haven't.
John