1st, 1st, and what it means. Is a 1st edition, 2nd printing worth buying?

You'll see me using what may look like a typo, '1st,'1st.' No, I didn't mistakenly repeat myself. A 1st edition, 1st printing is what you want to get as a collector. How to distinguish between a 1st, 1st and subsequent printings (all under the umbrella of the 1st edition) vary with each publisher and sometimes with the same publisher during different time periods.

With Maugham's early novels, you must consult an expert. Luckily with nice people such as "anonymous" at the My Maugham Collection site, or the Norman Moore site you now don't have to track down a copy of Raymond Toole Stott's research book, "Maughamania, the Writings of W. Somerset Maugham: Being a Handlist of Works by William Somerset Maugham ." As many Maugham collectors know, the Stott research has its cracks - editions and printings of the early works that exist but go missing in the Stott book. He was only human.

With Maugham's first publisher, T. Fisher Unwin, it's pretty clear. "Liza of Lambeth" (1897) went into two printings of the 1st edition, and one printing of a 2nd edition. What distinguishes the 1st and 2nd printings of the 1st edition are the brackets around the "All Rights Reserved." "The Making of a Saint" didn't have a 2nd printing, and "Orientations" didn't have a 2nd printing per sa, but a colonial edition (a printing solely for export to the British colonies), and this will be clearly stated.

With Maugham's third publisher (we'll skip over Hutchinson who only had one print run of "The Hero" with no 2nd printing), Heinemann, it varies with time period. From 1902 ("Mrs. Craddock") to 1915 ("Of Human Bondage") they did not put their "First Published" statement on the copyright page. Only when a book went into a 2nd printing did they print anything regarding the 1st printing. For instance "The Magician" (1908) was first printed in October, 1908 but on that printing you won't see their version of "First Edition" which reads "First Published." You won't see anything except at the bottom of the page both Heinemann and the American publisher Duffield's tag. It went into a 2nd printing in November so in that 2nd printing it will read something like, "First printed October 1908, Second impression, November 1908." After "Of Human Bondage" a Heinemann 1st, 1st is clearly stated with "First Published..." then the year. Again if it goes into a second printing within the same year it will list the month of the 1st printing as well.

Maugham's American publisher, for the most part, Doran simply put his oval "GDH" stamp directly underneath the copyright statement on books printed AFTER 1921. Don't confuse it with the GDH stamp that appears at the bottom of the title page. There are three Maugham novels he published before making it easy to distinguish 1st printings; those are "Of Human Bondage" (1915), "The Moon and Sixpence," (1919) and "Mrs.Craddock (1920) which is the 1st American edition. Thankfully the "Of Human Bondage" 1st has a typo in it which tells us without question which one is the 1st printing. More on that in  my next post. The second of the three books has a change in binding to distinguish 1st and 2nd printings - green is the 1st, tan is the 2nd. "Mrs. Craddock" didn't go into a 2nd printing until after the merge with Doubleday.

In 1927 Doran merged with Doubleday. Doubleday Doran 1st edition, 1st printings are probably the most easily identifiable. They simply state "First Edition" below the All Rights Reserved statement, and in later books such as "Catalina" (1948) it is below where it states the location of the printing ("Printed in U.S.A. at the Country Life Press").

From 1927 onward, Maugham only had two publishers: Doubleday Doran in America, and William Heinemann in England. The only 1st edition, 1st printings you'll find from his books from this point forward will only be published by these two publishers. So when you see a book listed for sale that states "1st Edition Thus" don't buy it. It's worthless. Also, if you are only interested in collecting 1st, 1st books then don't buy books published by Grosset and Dunlap, Burt, Heron, Viking, and of course Penguin; these are all reprint publishers. I'll admit though, Grosset and Dunlap did print some exceptionally nice editions.

Lately I've seen Maugham books on eBay which claim to be 1st editions, however the sellers incriminate themselves when they put a photo up of a Doubleday Doran book (for instance)  copyright page clearly with no 1st edition statement. There is one I saw the other day where the seller if asking $350, and the messed up thing is that the listing has 3 watchers! It is not a 1st edition - not even close. I'll provide a link to it later on today.

The answer to the question in the title of this post is no. Only buy a 1st edition, 2nd printing if you have no way to afford a 1st, 1st. It won't ever be worth anything so definitely try to haggle the price down; don't pay a whole lot for it.