Gnome Press First Editions: Why the Binding Decides It
Gnome Press published Golden Age science fiction in hardcover between 1948 and 1962, at a point when most of it had only ever appeared in the pulps. That is why the books matter. It is also why they are hard to buy well, and the reason has nothing to do with the copyright page.
Nearly every Gnome Press book carries a first edition statement. It is printed on the copyright page and it is usually accurate, in the narrow sense that the book is a first edition. What it does not tell you is which one you are holding, because Gnome routinely issued the same title in more than one binding, and L.W. Currey assigns priority between them.
A few examples, all from Currey
Judgment Night exists in two bindings, cloth ahead of boards. Both are first editions and both say so. One is the priority binding and one is not.
The Mixed Men also runs to two, blue boards with the spine lettered in orange ahead of blue cloth with the spine lettered in red. The distinction is a color of ink on a spine.
The Forgotten Planet runs to four. Currey lists cream cloth lettered in yellow-green first, and notes that this is the binding deposited at the Library of Congress. Then cream boards with a yellow-green marbled pattern, then tan boards lettered in green, then gray cloth lettered in red, the last two described as later. There is also a variant dust jacket showing a man confronted by a giant scarab beetle.
Foundation has two bindings separated by measurements rather than colours: cloth with sheets bulking 1.9 cm across the top, and boards bulking 1.4 cm. It also has two jacket states, told apart by what the rear panel advertises.
Foundation and Empire has three. Two of them differ only in the width of the publisher's imprint on the spine, 2.2 cm against 2.8 cm. You need a ruler.
None of that is on the copyright page. All of it changes what a copy is worth.
The trap that catches people
Pattern for Conquest was reprinted around 1952 in paper wrappers, for distribution to United States military personnel. Currey records that the reprint retains the first edition statement on the copyright page. So there is a Gnome Press book in circulation, not a first printing, that says first edition and is telling you the truth about the edition while saying nothing useful about the printing.
If a seller quotes you the copyright page as their evidence, that is the case to remember.
One thing not to worry about
Gnome used a paper stock that tans with age, and it does so on close to every copy. We treat that as characteristic of the books rather than as damage and we do not discount for it. A seller who describes a Gnome Press book as heavily toned is often describing a normal copy.
What to ask before you buy
Three questions cover most of it. What colour is the binding and what colour is the spine lettering. Is the jacket present and what does the rear panel show. And does the copyright page carry the first edition statement, which for these books is the beginning of the identification rather than the end of it.
Every Gnome Press book we list is described against Currey by binding and jacket state, with the variant named, and where a point cannot be verified against a source we say so instead of guessing. You can see what we currently have on the Gnome Press shelf.
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