Is my Harry Potter book a "First Edition"? How can I tell?
There are many ways to tell if a book is a first edition. Each publisher has it’s own guidelines on how they determine to print their first run. In modern first editions, it is perhaps a bit easier to identify as publishers tend to adopt much similar formulas on their print run indicators.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is perhaps the most commonly inquired example of a modern first edition and here’s what to know.
The Dust Jacket
The rear panel of the true first state dust jacket will show “HARRY POTTER” at the top of review quoted from -The Guardian, London.
This jacket was only on the first and second printings of this book. All subsequent printings start with “A DELIGHTFUL…” at the top of the rear panel.
The spine of the dust jacket will have “J.K. ROWLING” at the spine crown.
The third and fourth printings of the book also have this on the spine, but lack the Guardian review to the top rear panel of the jacket. These jackets would be considered “second state” as the dust jacket is now different than the original first (in this case, two) printings. None of the aforementioned jackets will have the “Year 1” badge. The fourth through the 22nd printings have “ROWLING” at the top of the spine and no “Year 1” badge. The printings from the 23rd print run and beyond will all have “ROWLING” and the “Year 1” badge.
Of course at this point, the main first edition points have been identified. The book will also have the correct price of $16.95 on the front flap, as well as the rear cream barcode. The “Junior Library Guild” offers a similar dust jacket but will have a small rectangular identifier next to the barcode.
The Hardcover
The book design will be a magenta cloth backed design and the panels in a fuchsia/purple diamond pattern.
This is important as the popular and much more common replica (a.k.a. “Book Club Edition”) is a darker red with charcoal boards and no embossed diamond pattern. Typically, The first accurate indicator for nearly many modern first editions is to start with the publisher’s info page. And while in this case, we do need to see the publishers page to confirm, the hardcover exterior has indicators as well.
2. The spine of the hardcover will show “J.K. ROWLING” at the spine crown, matching that of the dust jacket.
Again, this design is also present on the third and fourth printings of the hardcover. This design changes with the jacket designs for the 5th printings on.
3. The “numberline” located near the bottom of the publishers info page must read “1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2”.
The numberline is a standard printing indicator telling what print run the book in question was printed. The lowest number in the numberline is the printing. In this case, the “1” being present represents the “1st” printing of the book. The “2nd” printing will have all of these numbers except the “1” thus “2” as the lowest number, etc.
If your copy of Harry Potter shows a numberline of “29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22” this will indicate the book is a “22nd” printing.
The numbers to the right of the numberline (in many cases) account for the year the book was printed. In the first printing, the numbers show “8 9/9 0/0 01 02” which indicates this book was printed in the year “1998”.
