How do you know when a books is a first edition?

Question

What do you need to look for in the book's publishing page that tells you that it is the first edition? or 2nd or 3rd? Thanks!

Answer 1

Look for the string of numbers on the fly page. If all numbers are present, it's a first edition. If the "1" is missing, it's not.
Example: 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 or 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 are firsts
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 or 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 are not.

Answer 2

When you look on the fly page (the first page with all the information about the publisher, the printer, the Dewey decimal numbers etc.) you will see a publication date. If there is only one date, you know you have a first edition. For second and third editions, they will add additional dates, eg, published 2004, 2005, 2006 - or it will say second edition, third edition etc. This doesn't work for very old books, because until fairly recent times there was no agreed upon system for providing all the information that modern books carry.

Answer 3

It actually does not always say 1st edition on the fly page. Talk to a person that runs a rare and used book store. I frankly do not remember all the details. But there are some first edition books that do not say first edition.

Answer 4

because on the fly page it says first edition