The first edition of a book is generally the product of the first type-setting, but in book collecting it usually refers specifically to the first printing of the first edition, most often a hardback printing. The first edition of a book is generally more valuable than a later edition.

For instance, some copies of the first printing of the first hardcover edition of The Godfather by Mario Puzo are now on sale for more than a thousand Euros (about the same number of US funds), while other good copies printed a few months later can be bought for ten of fifteen Euros. This is in part due to the particular printing History of that book: The first run was very small.

Finding out exactly what is the printing History or what is the true first edition of any given book is an art form in itself. Just trying to ascertain which of the early American printings you have of The Hobbit by Tolkien means having to learn all the details of every variation in the text and illustrations of the book and its dust jacket, over its first twenty-five years. The Wikipedia article on Early American editions of The Hobbit may help, but it's still difficult. And so it goes for just about any first edition: It takes the skills of a professional bibliographer, or of a really dedicated amateur, to really sort things out.

External Resource

• Bookseller World collectors resources how to identify a first edition, bibliographies etc