Pet Peeves?

Mine is folks trying to pass off nonfirsts as first editions of Thomas
Merton's SEVEN STOREY MOUNTAIN, one of the key books in my collection.

One problem is that there was a Taiwanese pirate edition in the 1960s
that looks much like the first edition in the first state binding (see
below). The clue there is that there is no price on the jacket and
that the things just look so shiny and perfect that you know there're
not first editions from the late 1940s.

But pirates aside, folks get caught up in the fact that there are two
states of the first edition binding (first state: off-white cloth;
second state: black) and two states of the jacket (depending, inter
al., on whether the author in the jacket photo is described as "on the
left" or "second from the left") that they forget to check the most
basic thing: the copyright page.

Every first edition of this title says: "first edition" on the
copyright page.

Even experienced people forget to look for that. I've recounted here
how I found a copy in Powell's rare book room priced for some $225 and
marked as a first but without the copyright page statement.

So I checked out this recent eBay auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=170022670184

and found that the seller had made this common error. When I pointed
it out to him, he responded that some guide to first editions says that
Harcourt books of the period only need to have no additional printings
indicated. When I replied with citations to the standard Merton
bibliography, Frank Dell'Isola, THOMAS MERTON: A BIBLIOGRAPHY (1975),
A7a, and to the more readily available guide, Allen & Patricia Ahearn's
COLLECTED BOOKS 2002, and to my own copy (in the first state binding,
ex libris the late Montana novelist Mildred Walker Schemm), he replied
that he disagreed with my conclusions. Then I sent him this pictu

http://i2.tinypic.com/262um3m.jpg

and said that you can't disagree with that and that he really ought to
correct his auction. Which he has not done.

So, caveat emptor, as the saying goes.

William M. Klimon
http://www.gateofbliss.com

He's now added an 'unknown printing' comment...

Denton

On 31 Aug 2006 16:19:55 -0700, "William M. Klimon"
wrote:

and said that you can't disagree with that and that he really ought to
correct his auction. Which he has not done.

John A. Stovall wrote:

On 31 Aug 2006 16:19:55 -0700, "William M. Klimon"
wrote:



Mine is folks trying to pass off nonfirsts as first editions of Thomas
Merton's SEVEN STOREY MOUNTAIN, one of the key books in my collection.



That is a problem with it and why I didn't buy mine until I had it in
hand. (Alas it's a second state).

But too many people are selling on eBay who aren't book people but
rather greedheads.




The inmates are in charge of the asylum. Do you think enough negative
feedback can solve the problem?


Francis A. Miniter

In article 44fc6671$1@kcnews01,
"Francis A. Miniter" wrote:

The inmates are in charge of the asylum. Do you think enough negative
feedback can solve the problem?

No. But education can.

http://www.ioba.org/newsletter/7(1)/kaminsebay.php

Francis A. Miniter wrote:
The inmates are in charge of the asylum. Do you think enough negative
feedback can solve the problem?

Gee, I dunno.
Do you think someone repeatedly smacking you upside the head would
knock a little sense into you?

William M. Klimon wrote:
Mine is folks trying to pass off nonfirsts as first editions of Thomas
Merton's SEVEN STOREY MOUNTAIN, one of the key books in my collection.

[...]

But pirates aside, folks get caught up in the fact that there are two
states of the first edition binding (first state: off-white cloth;
second state: black) and two states of the jacket (depending, inter
al., on whether the author in the jacket photo is described as "on the
left" or "second from the left") that they forget to check the most
basic thing: the copyright page.

Basically true, but reading your comment,
a newbie might be left with the impression
that "state" changes edition. You
probably know it does not, as John Carter
makes very clear in "ABC for Book
Collectors." In other words, there is
nothing at all wrong in selling a second
state of a first edition AS a first edition,
which it still is. Of course, a collector
might want only the first state and might
ask for point information pertinent to
determining state, but that is the buyer's
call to make. The key thing is that there
is nothing unethical about listing the
second state of a first edition as a
first edition, which it remains (unless
someone presumes to "correct" John
Carter and -- sadly -- we have a few people
ignorant and arrogant enough to make
fools of themselves attempting such a
ludicrous and ultimately humiliating
escapade).

[...]


and said that you can't disagree with that and that he really ought to
correct his auction. Which he has not done.

So, caveat emptor, as the saying goes.

That is certainly the way it should be. Reading
though a sample of ADDALL listings, it would
seem that some sellers have concluded that
Barnum was wrong, and that there is a sucker
born every SECOND instead of merely every
minute.

One of my own pet peeves involves
the vicious manner in which so many listers
abuse the ancient and distinguished modal
auxiliary word "may" as a weasel word these days.
It is truly difficult for me to plumb the depths
of the base mentality which would list a book
as "used, like new" for $30 and then note
that it "may" have a remainder mark, small
tears, whatever. THAT is very lowly
bookseller behavior, to say the very least.

[From the upstairs office.]

William M. Klimon
http://www.gateofbliss.com

Two more examples of faux Merton first editions:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=190028365502
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=8404837713

The first seller, not at all hostile, wove for me a wonderful fantasy
about how his "first edition" was really the trade first edition, which
was preceded by some kind of deluxe, special first edition in white
cloth.

One could spend a lifetime correcting errors on the Internet--I feel
like I'm getting sucked into that trap.

William M. Klimon
http://www.gateofbliss.com