Susan Cooper's Greenwitch - what edition have I got?

[HareBrain]

This is a pretty niche query, but I'm hoping someone will be able to satisfy my curiosity. Maybe @Jo Zebedee ?

I wanted an original hardback of Greenwitch by Susan Cooper, and found one on Abebooks that was much cheaper than all the others. It has, however, turned out to be not quite what I was expecting, though I'm happy with it for the price. It doesn't have a dust jacket (unlike the more expensive ones listed), with the cover picture being pasted straight onto the boards. It's also 2cm shorter than my dust-jacketed hardback of the previous one in the series.

It's by the same publisher, Chatto & Windus, but there's no edition/impression info inside. I think it must be 1974 (the year the book was released) as the "By the same author" page doesn't mention The Grey King, the next in the series, which was released a year later.

It's an ex library copy. I'm wondering if it was a special library edition. Were there such things?

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Well, at least in the US when the library has paperbacks which, for some particular reason, they would like to render more durable and shelve them with the hardbacks, they are able to send them ... somewhere ... to get converted. In the process, the old paper cover gets laminated onto the boards, which are invariably white. Could this describe your copy?

 

[HareBrain]

Well, at least in the US when the library has paperbacks which, for some particular reason, they would like to render more durable and shelve them with the hardbacks, they are able to send them ... somewhere ... to get converted. In the process, the old paper cover gets laminated onto the boards, which are invariably white. Could this describe your copy?

No, I'm sure not -- the paper is far too thick for a paperback, and you can see that the cover image was originally larger than the boards (which are larger than the pages) and has been wrapped around.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Then it is not likely to be a library edition. Just a book that ended up being bought by a library—or maybe donated to a library.

Could it be a book club edition? Sometimes they are smaller.

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

Have you looked at the Editions page on Goodreads? It might help identify it

Editions of Greenwitch by Susan Cooper

Editions for Greenwitch: 0689840349 (Paperback published in 1997), 0689710887 (Mass Market Paperback published in 1986), (Kindle Edition published in 201...

www.goodreads.com

 

[HareBrain]

Have you looked at the Editions page on Goodreads?

Thanks. Yes, the only one that matches it (page count, year and ISBN) gives no details apart from the page count, unhelpfully. But I think that ISBN applies to the "proper" hardback too.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Can you pop up a photo of it and the title page? Teresa is right that in america they produce special library hardback editions but they are pretty well made and feel like a standard hardback so I dont think that is what youve got.

 

[HareBrain]

Can you pop up a photo of it and the title page? Teresa is right that in america they produce special library hardback editions but they are pretty well made and feel like a standard hardback so I dont think that is what youve got.

It does feel well-made, it's just the type without a dust-jacket**. It's printed in the UK, though.

Here are some pics:



**I've just checked my shelves to see what other books have this binding method, where the cover image is pasted onto the boards, wrapped around, and then a plain sheet pasted over the inside. I have several, but they're all hardback graphic novels, RPG rule books and the like, not fiction.

 

[Vince W]

That looks like library binding. A friend of mine at uni was going through for library sciences and one of the things she learned was how to rebind books. She did it to all her notebooks and I had her bind my thesis' for me.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I agree it looks like a library edition

 

[Danny McG]

Yep, deffo a library edition *



*I don't have a clue really, I just wanted to be in this thread

 

[Vince W]

Yep, deffo a library edition *



*I don't have a clue really, I just wanted to be in this thread

If you say the name @BAYLOR three times his post will appear.

 

[BAYLOR]

If you say the name @BAYLOR three times his post will appear.

Sort of like Bloody Mare ,The Candyman and Beetlejuice

 

[HareBrain]

That looks like library binding. A friend of mine at uni was going through for library sciences and one of the things she learned was how to rebind books. She did it to all her notebooks and I had her bind my thesis' for me.

I agree it looks like a library edition

Thanks guys. I guess it makes sense for library hardbacks to have the cover straight on the boards rather than dust jackets, which could easily get lost or damaged. I've never come across it before, though. I wonder how common it was for publishers to do this?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Thanks guys. I guess it makes sense for library hardbacks to have the cover straight on the boards rather than dust jackets, which could easily get lost or damaged. I've never come across it before, though. I wonder how common it was for publishers to do this?

i don’t think its common in the U.K. - in fact, I’ve never seen it with a UK book - but is quite prevalent in America.

 

[HareBrain]

in fact, I’ve never seen it with a UK book

So what I'm hearing is, it's a highly desirable rarity, and after reading I should put it back up for sale at £4,000 rather than £4.

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

I've just found this site isbnsearch.org and according to it you have a 9th edition. Not much more info though

ISBN 9780701150488 - Greenwitch

Greenwitch - Information and prices for ISBN 9780701150488, ISBN 0701150483

isbnsearch.org

Author: Cooper, Susan
Edition: 9th
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Chatto & Windus
Published: January 1974

 

[HareBrain]

I've just found this site isbnsearch.org and according to it you have a 9th edition.

Thanks, I wasn't away of that search site.

9th edition sounds odd, though, given it's in the same year as the novel was released. Also, the same ISBN turns up on bookseller sites as the "normal" hardback, with dust jacket, so it's not specific to the library edition, and as a hardback, also 1974, from Bodley Head (in the same publishing group), with 160 rather than 147 pages!

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

I've been looking at other ISBN search sites. The majority of them seem to be nothing more than portals to Amazon, so I think we can discount the info on that site

Mind you, Amazon.com Product details also reckons it is 9th

Amazon.com

but Amazon.co.uk disagrees with just about every detail

Greenwitch : Cooper, Susan: Amazon.co.uk: Books

Greenwitch : Cooper, Susan: Amazon.co.uk: Books

www.amazon.co.uk

 

[K. Riehl]

I checked the ISFDB(Internet Speculative Fiction Database) site and got the following.

Title: Greenwitch

www.isfdb.org

ISBN is correct, Binding without dust jacket(i.e. cover art printed on the boards) indicates special library binding. If this was a US edition I could contact the library of congress and get the exact order in which the book was received as well as any additional information provided by the publisher. Another resource is the American Booksellers Assoc. Is there a comparable organization in the UK?

In the US library bindings may or may not be first editions depending on the library contracts with publishers. Some libraries would get a later edition on cheaper paper in a stronger binding compared to the trade edition.