Five on Kirrin Island Again - 1st edition book colour

[egoon]

Hello
Through browsing online I note that this book seems to have exterior red boards, light blue boards and navy boards. Q for those in the know - is this how they were initially produced from the first print run, or were these subsequent runs (without any changes and thus still a first edition)?

Thanks in advance with any assistance to solving this particular mystery.

[pete9012S]

This info from Tony may help:

If you wanted to, how many of the Famous Five's could you collect with blue boards instead of red, does anyone know?

Yes!! The first seven come in various shades of blue ranging from pale blue to navy blue - but the last three of these would have to be 1st editions. There are also grey, black and buff editions and 'Kirrin Island Again' actually had four different board colours for the 1st edition - Pale blue vertical ribs, Navy blue vertical ribs,
Navy blue mottled and Deep red & red mottled. 'Trouble' was the first book to have just the familiar red boards.

If you are really keen (and have a deep pocket!) you can collect 'Treasure Island' with five different board covers!

Famous Five Blue or Red?
https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/for ... red+boards" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[egoon]

Thanks Pete! So any colour of board is still considered a first edition and they were printed in a range of colours. This is most helpful!

[IceMaiden]

My first seven are light blue then they're all red except Hike, which is light blue like the first ones. I wonder why Hike was changed?

[Irene Malory Towers]

My early edition of Five Go on a Hike Together also has red covers like the previous books in the series. I am not sure whether is a first edition or not. It says first published Sept 1951 and then fifth impression 1955. Does that make it a 5th edition then ?
The frontispiece is in blue and is a lovely illustration of the 5 hiding watching the delightful pair hard Maggie and dirty Dick. I decided to read it again last night and it really is one of Enid Blyton's good famous five mysteries. I think it is slightly shorter than the rest but full of action. The moonlight trip of retrieving the stolen loot is full of atmosphere. I love these moonlit escapades.

[IceMaiden]

It's a first edition but a fifth impression not a fifth edition. There's a difference between an edition and an impression, I can't really remember the ins and outs but I seem to recall it's that an impression is a different run but without any alterations from the original first printing and an edition has had some differences/alterations done to it. I think it's something like that anyway, someone will be along to correct me if it's wrong!

[Fiona1986]

That's my understanding too, IceMaiden. A fifth impression should be just a new printing of the first edition (sometimes or or two small changes are made), a new edition implies significant changes have been made - new illustrations, updates to the text, a change of format etc. Though oddly a new dustjacket doesn't always seem to count - my copy of Smuggler's Top is a 'fourteenth impression' according to the inside, though it has the second version of the dustjacket (or it had, before I lost it ) with the car approaching Castaway Hill.

I found this which explains it reasonably well:

5. What is an edition? What is a printing?
From A B C For Book-Collectors,by John Carter, Third Edition:

"Strictly speaking, an edition comprises all copies of a book printed at any time from one setting-up of type without substantial change."
A printing [also known as] "an impression comprises the whole number of copies of that edition printed at one time, without the type or plates being removed from the press."

6. Bringing those definitions up to date.
Type? Press? Are books printed that way any more? No. Computer based printing has replaced most of that these days, but these definitions still work if we focus on "without substantial change" and "at one time".

If a book doesn't change it is still the same edition. So, if an author changes the text (as text books do almost every year) or if the pages need to be re-done for a paperback's smaller size, then substantial changes have been made and you therefore have a new edition.

If the publisher runs out of copies and makes new ones without making changes, they just make more, then the edition not has changed, but you have a new printing.

https://www.travelinlibrarian.info/writing/editions/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Irene Malory Towers]

Thank you - I am pleased that I have a first edition of a great book.