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Were there two different English ‘The Old Century and seven more years’ First Editions?
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In the picture on the left we see the 1938 First Edition of The Old Century and seven more years, in its dust jacket (Keynes A42). Next to it is a different edition in red cloth minus jacket, it is shorter in size by around 5mm. The text on the cover is different, and gives only Sassoon’s first initial before his full surname. Unlike the covers, the text throughout the book is identical to that of the other book and it was published by Faber & Faber. Keynes records only one English First Edition, 10,000 copies published on 15th September 1938. A second impression of 2,000 copies was published in the same year. I do not believe the red book is the second impression as it would say so at the front of the book. In this case, the text is identical throughout, stating ‘First published in September Mcmxxxviii’ (see below left) The red book carries the rubber stamp of the Times Book Club on the inside of the back cover. This book may well have been sold by them but it was still published by Faber & Faber during the original print run in September 1938. |
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Original First Edition |
Edition with red covers |
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Left: Both books carry identical publishing details. Centre and right: Proof that the same printing process was used for both books can be seen on their ‘Contents’ pages where the letter ‘a’ in ‘page’ is incomplete on its top edge, this is a fault in the printing. The two ‘I’s in ‘I I’ are not level, and there is a fault below the last ‘I’ in ‘I 8 I’. This would be impossible without the original printing process being used to produce both books, something that Keynes did not record in his bibliography.
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