Proof Positive

15 November 2007 - Peter Downie

Now I will admit that these things are not particularly aesthetic or sexy, but I reckon that they have a legitimate place in book collecting, with the emphasis being in the arcane world of modern first editions. Modern first editions, while subject to a pretty wide interpretation of when and where, are generally thought of as beginning in the early 20th century, with authors like Forster, Lawrence, Williamson and Woolf, and moving through the heavyweights of Joyce, Hemingway and Miller to the popular and commercial authors like Christie, Wodehouse, Fleming and Tolkien. I also think that until the last thirty years or so, modern firsts were never meant to be collected, and this applies even more so to proof copies of the very same books.

The main idea of collecting modern first editions is to get a copy of a book that is as close as possible to the author, hence signed copies are better than unsigned, and inscribed copies better still and so on, all the way back to the manuscript. Now, somewhere in this journey from the author's work to the finished book there exists a state in the publishing process called a book proof and this copy is meant to be used by the publisher as a chance for corrections to be made in house, and for the dissemination of the text to reviewers so that reviews could be written beforehand, and thereby coincide with the book's release. Now, as previously mentioned, these book proofs are not things of great beauty as they were generally printed on poor paper with lightweight paper covers, and apart from the title and author's name, other details on the front wrapper were generally confined to a physical description, i.e. pagination, untrimmed dimensions and proposed release date of the final book.

It's fair to say that the physical appearance of proof copies has changed over the last ten years or so, and what was once purely used for the purposes previously described, has now changed to one of higher production value and publisher promotion. A current proof now looks pretty much like the normal paperback, with a glossy cover and normal spine. But there are ways of telling what they are by the quality of the paper inside the cover and again a description of the physical appearance of the book on the back cover.

Now for the main reasons for collecting proofs. They are RARE with the number of proof copies being generally between 50 and 200.They tend to get used either in-house or by reviewers, and hence fail to make it and only a limited number seem to escape and become part of the rare book market. A proof is "closer" to the author than the first edition, and for the collector who likes a gamble they are often very reasonably priced. The collecting of proof copies by an unknown author is the fun bit. After all, who had heard of Harry Potter ten years ago? A first edition of the first Harry Potter book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone sold at Christie's Auctions in London a couple of weeks ago for just under 20,000 pounds, and a proof copy at the same auction sold for 2,500 pounds. The Harry Potter phenomenon shows no sign of abating either! The Philosopher's Stone proof provided another great reason for collecting: the proofs were incorrectly attributed to JA Rowling instead of JK. That's why I think our proof copy of Martin Amis' Money is a worthwhile item as the proof jacket is a different colour to that of the final edition.

The ultimate of course would be to have a proof copy corrected in the author's own hand, but basically if a first edition is collectible, then so is the proof. If the book is rare the proof is rarer. The only way for collectible proofs is upwards. Have fun!

These are the Proof we have available online. For further information please contact us!