A customer came to me to show off his copy of THE SAND PEBBLES.   Alas, I had to tell him it was a book club.   "But," he said, "it says FIRST EDITION."   "Yes," I replied, "I know - but it lies.   Welcome to the world of book collecting."    This is what is known as a false first.    The current well known example of this is THE DA VINCI CODE.

        I went on the 'net and bought a copy of THE SAND PEBBLES for the customer.   When it arrived I gasped: "Ah-HA".    It was different from the copy in my collection.   What's going on here ?    For those who might be unfamiliar with this book it was a spectacular best seller in 1962 - being on the New York Times best seller list for seven months.    In 1966 it was made into a movie, nominated for eight academy awards, and considered one of the high points of the movie career of Steve McQueen.    On Amazon it has sixteen reviews - all of which give it five out of five stars.

         Here we have two copies of THE SAND PEBBLES by Richard Mckenna.   Which one is the true first edition ?  Both of them say "FIRST EDITION" on the copyright page.   Both copies are identical except:

Copy I-M is coded "I-M" on the copyright page. Harper intends this to mean the book was printed in September 1962. This copy measures 4.8 cm wide.

Copy A-N is coded "A-N" which means January 1963. This copy is printed on thinner paper and is 3.9 cm wide.

         The two dust jackets are identical. The ones on the thicker book seems to fit the book better. Both have a code "0163" on the bottom of the front flap, both are priced at $5.95.

         There is a book club version of this book. To add to the confusion, it also says "FIRST EDITION" on the copyright page. However, it has a book club indentation on the back cover. The book club dust jacket is not priced.

         So, which is the first edition ?
(A) Copy I-M is the first edition because it has the earlier date.
(B) Copy A-N's date, January 1963 matches the date on the dust jacket. Copy I-M is some kind of advance copy or first printing before publication.
(C) Some other copy not yet seen is the true first edition. Maybe there are copies out there with an even earlier coding, H-M for example.

         There is a book on points by Bill McBride. The SAND PEBBLES is not mentioned. I wrote to McBride. He replied saying he hadn't heard of this problem, it seemed interesting, and that I should investigate it and then he might include it in the next edition of his book.

         Next, I wrote to Allen Ahearn. He has written two books with prices of first editions. He hadn't indicated there were points associated with the SAND PEBBLES and I believe he now says he wasn't aware of a problem with the book.