Stonewords first edition cover, Harper & Row 1990

First edition Hardback

Stonewords (1990)

Pam Conrad · Harper & Row, New York

Publisher Harper & Row Year 1990 ISBN 9780060213152

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Market value

What decides the price

It is the first edition, which is the one collectors want.
The original dust jacket carries much of the price for a book of this age; its condition matters as much as the book's.
Condition is graded separately for book and jacket, from Fine down to Poor.

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In short

Quick answer

Who published the Stonewords first edition?: Harper & Row, New York, in 1990, in hardback.

Publisher's practice

How Harper & Row marked its first editions

Harper & Row was formed in 1962 when Harper & Brothers merged with Row, Peterson, and became HarperCollins in 1990.
It inherited the Harper & Brothers practice of printing "First Edition" on the copyright page of a first printing.
From 1912 Harper & Brothers also printed two code letters on the copyright page for the month and year of printing: months run A (January) to M (December) skipping J, and years start at M for 1912 and run through the alphabet, again skipping J.
Where a number row appears on the copyright page, the lowest figure is the printing, whatever order the figures run in (1 2 3 4 5, 1 3 5 4 2 or 5 4 3 2 1), so a row that still includes 1 normally means a first printing.
Book-of-the-Month Club copies are usually the same size and quality as the trade edition, so size is no guide. Look instead for a jacket with no price on the front flap and a small blind stamp (a dot, circle or square) low on the rear board. BOMC printed prices on some jackets in the 1970s, but those copies still carry the blind stamp.
A rear-board mark is not always a club sign: a few very large printings were shared between printing plants, each of which embossed its own mark.

Read the full guide to Harper & Row first editions, decade by decade, and check your copy's copyright page against it. Our number line decoder reads the printing from the row of numbers.

Printing by printing

Printings and states

First impression

1990

At a glance

Not yet researched

We have not yet confirmed the issue points that tell this first impression from later ones. Until we do, compare your copy's title page and copyright page with the publisher, place and year above: any later printing or edition statement means it is not this one.

Know the points? Tell us. We publish them, with credit, once a second source agrees.

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Questions collectors ask

Frequently asked questions

Who published the Stonewords first edition?

Harper & Row, New York, in 1990, in hardback.

Collecting guides

Know what you are looking at

All guides

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Dust Jackets Explained: Why the Jacket Drives a Book's Value

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How to Identify a First Edition

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Book Condition Grading: Fine to Poor Explained

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