Friday, November 02, 2012

Is Your First Edition Book Worth Money?

"The Great Gatsby" is one of my all time favorite books and a first edition, first printing, 1925 published by Scribner's, with the original dust jacket and in excellent condition can bring up to 6 figures.

Did you know that there are a few things you can look for in the text of the book to determine if what you have is a true first?

You want to look for "chatter" on p. 60, line 16, "northern" on p. 119, line 22, "it’s" on p. 165, line 16, "away" on p. 165, line 29, "sick in tired" on p. 205, lines 9-10, and "Union Street station" on p. 211, lines 7-8. The dust jacket will have a lowercase "j" in "jay Gatsby" on the back panel that has been hand-corrected in ink.

The art on the jacket was designed by artist Francis Cugat and is called "Celestial Eyes". Fitzgerald fell in love with the cover design and liked it so much that he incorporated parts of it in to the story.

Here is my WorthPoint.com article on First Edition Books.

As always I appreciate your feedback and comments.