Books with Multiple Early Printings

Don't overlook juvenile series for records in total number of printings.
For example: the original edition of the first Hardy Boys story, "The Tower
Treasure" had at least 50 printings, not counting the new editions printed
by Applewood Books.
If you count the revised edition of this title, the total number of
printings is at least 100.
That's for US editions only and there are numerous foreign editions.
--
Bob Finnan
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http://www.Hardy-Boys.net
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 >> Stay informed about: Books with Multiple Early Printings 

"Francis A. Miniter" <miniter.DeleteThis@attglobal.net> wrote in message
news:3f67d53f_1@news1.prserv.net...




 > Now I am wondering, just what book has had the most printings
 > in the shortest period of time.


As stated, that's an impossible question to answer. As it contains
two superlatives, most and shortest.

The question is either

What book has had the most printings in x amount of time

Or

What book has had x amount of printings within the
shortest periond of time.



michael adams

....<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Books with Multiple Early Printings 

Francis A. Miniter wrote:

 > Now I am wondering, just what book has had the most printings in the
 > shortest period of time.

Interesting question, but perhaps unanswerable. The closest one might be
able to get to would be to answer the question, "What book *of which records
are known* had the most printings?".

A book like Corelli, The Sorrows of Satan (Methuen, 1895), which broke all
records at the time, probably went into hundreds of printings. Within a year
or so it had been reprinted by Tauchnitz, Lippincott, The American News
Company, Grosset and Dunlap, A.L. Burt, Wessels and perhaps others. Methuen
attempted to keep track, and it is recorded that "a total of eight [Methuen]
editions...were sold in its first seven weeks" (http://tinyurl.com/nnhc).
An ABE seller is offering a 13th edition still dated 1895 (the first edition
came out in September of that year). The number of editions falls off quite
quickly, though, and a 1916 Methuen edition is marked as the 60th (also
listed on ABE). However, many of the reprint companies didn't bother to give
a statement of printing or edition, so it is perhaps impossible to determine
exactly how many times it was reprinted.

--
John
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://rarebooksinjapan.com" target="_blank">http://rarebooksinjapan.com</a><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Books with Multiple Early Printings 

Francis A. Miniter wrote:

 > I had been impressed with how many printings "Gone With The Wind" had
 > in a short period following its initial publication, with about 50
 > printings in two years or so. I blithely accepted that this was
 > about the most frequently published book.
 >
 >
 > But the other day, I pulled out an old copy of Ibañez, "The Four
 > Horsemen of the Apocalypse" (English translation first published by
 > Dutton & Company in July, 1918) and was astounded to find that what I
 > had was the 85th printing and that was from February 1919, just seven
 > months after the first printing.
 >
 > Now I am wondering, just what book has had the most printings in the
 > shortest period of time.
 >
 > As a side note, does anyone have further information about the
 > incredible popularity of the "Horsemen" in those early days of
 > publication?
 >
 >
 > Francis A. Miniter


A footnote to my previous post. I thought I might have a second copy of
"Horsemen" and I finally found it tonight. It was the 162nd printing
which was made in November 1920. I find some humor in all this -
finding the most recent of a string of printings instead of the
earliest. A sort of the reverse snobbery, proof of how ultimately
popular a book was by having a record of how many times they printed it.


Francis A. Miniter<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Books with Multiple Early Printings