How do I know an original of this book compared - Page 1

How do I know an original of this book compared to a reprint?  What do I look for?  Thank you! - Kelly

THE GERMAN SHEPHERD DOG IN WORD & PICTURE

by V. Stephanitz, 740 pages, Deluxe Edition, $75 + $10 s&h ($28 in Canada, $45 outside US/Canada). Reprint of the 1925 classic from Germany.

Ask one of our long time older  German Breeders from Germany     Silbersee    or email one of the german breeders....Veronicak9 just got back from germany,,she know two very reputable trainers and breeders ,who dont lie, and do not cheat people and are very good with translating German to English....so they may can point you to an original copy//

Others here like Ulli     Jonah......some I dont know  from Germany will soon post , Im sure....

Well, first of all, usually on the very first white page, it will say somehting like:

"Reprinted 1994 by Hoflin Publishing Ltd." etc, etc.

Additonally, on probably the very next page, it will state something like

"Second Entirely Revised American Edition".

Just because you see that it was "Printed in Germany by Anton Kampfe, Jena, 1925" does not mean your book was printed in 1925.  It means that the first time (and they could be talking about the first time in English or the first time in German), was in 1925.  But, in the example I used here of 1994 as the "Reprinted" date, means that your edition was printed in 1994, and the one that it was reprinted from, was Revised from the original first printing.

On other types of books in the U.S., not this one, you will see in the first few pages something that looks like this:

293781465

That means (because you can see a 1 anywhere in that line), that it is the first edition.

If it looked somethig like this:

5739486

then it would mean that you have the third edition because the losest number you can ss in this line is a 3.

When it comes to collecting first edition books, it can get a little tricky, because there is a difference between "first edition, first printing" and "first edition, second printing", and so forth.  I have seen books that are "first edition, 45th printing" and people may think that they have afirst edition.  Tehy do but they don't.  If it ever states "first edition, first printing" then it is the real deal, unless it is a forgery.  It happens to highly collectable books like "To Kill a Mockingbird" or "Gone With the Wind" (this book was printed and reprinted so many times it ain't funny).

But I gave you the general idea. 

I have an original English print.  It's all in the publishing page - but it's pretty obvious from the nature of the book itself, too.  If it's too clean and/or light - it's not old!

Look on "Bookfinder.com" - a clearinghouse of used-book sites.  Also check out AbeBooks and Alibris - accessed by Bookfinder but sometimes the latter does not show all that is available.  They all basically tell you what print edition it was; and will mention "original" or some such if it is.

Also check Powells.com - Powell's Book Store, a HUGE used (and new, actually) book store in Portland, Oregon - the biggest in the country if not the world (I've been there, once).  Sometimes they have things like this.

And I bought mine through eBay - you can find these from time to time when noone else is looking and get it cheaply.

I have an original second entirely revised American Edition,printed in Germany,1925. Copyright, 1925.

I came into this book in 1972 when I took my GS to a lady that had a summer home in Cape May ,NJ. The lady was in her eighties, and had been a lifetime member of the Long Island German Shepherd Club. She liked my dog and she liked the fact that I studied the breed continously. So one day when I went to visit her, she told me she was getting up in years and she was giving me this book as a gift. She said she had gotten it originally through Joe Gans. I have had the book ever since.

Very cool; Gans!

Thank you for all the information!!

Kelly