The E-Sylum:  Volume 9, Number 47, November 19, 2006, Article 7

MORE ON THE FIRST EDITION RED BOOK REPRINT

Gary Dunaier writes: "As a follow-up to my comments in last week's
E-Sylum, someone at Whitman must be spying on my outgoing e-mail!
A few days after I sent my note to you, I received an e-mail from
Whitman (I'm on their mailing list) announcing the Tribute Edition.
A couple of points of interest:

As shown in the e-mail (and on the website - yes, it's now listed),
there's a sunburst sticker with the text, "Exact replica of the very
first RED BOOK!  The hobby's best selling guide," which leads me to
believe this will be sold in retail stores as well (Borders, Barnes
and Noble, &c.).  I was presuming this would be a hobby-only product,
because I couldn't see it appealing to the mass market, but you never
know."

To view the Whitman web page for the Red Book reprint, see:
Red Book Reprint

"TRIBUTE EDITION" REPRINT OF FIRST REDBOOK PUBLISHED
esylum_v09n45a04.html

THOUGHTS ON THE FIRST EDITION RED BOOK
esylum_v09n46a05.html

[The image of the "exact replica" book on the Whitman page looks so
much like an original edition was hard to believe.  The image is of
a typical lightly worn and used copy with some fading of the gilt
lettering, light marks, and a slightly wavy spine.  The sticker looks
one-dimensional, as if it were added in Photoshop to an image of an
actual first edition rather than applied physically to a book before
photographing. So I contacted Whitman and their reply is below.
-Editor]

Dennis Tucker of Whitman Publishing writes: "Yes, the 1947 Tribute
Edition Red Book will be marketed as broadly as the regular Red Book
--- at Borders, Barnes and Noble, Books-a-Million, Amazon, etc.,
basically anywhere you might find the regular annual edition.

The dustjacket art of the Tribute Edition recreates an actual copy
of the 1947 book. That's what you see on the web site and in our
advertisements. When the dustjacket is removed, the book's cover
also reproduces the original, as does the interior paper, and the
endpapers.

It's interesting... of all our recent books, I think only the
Cherrypickers' Guide has created more advance buzz than this
Tribute Edition Red Book! Advance sales have been very strong."

[Aha!  Another first - a Red Book with a dust jacket!  Great idea
for the cover art!  The folks at Whitman have put a lot of thought
into this - the book should be a popular holiday gift item for
collectors.  -Editor]

Kenneth Bressett (current editor of the Red Book) writes: "I was
another one of the old timers who got a copy of the first edition
Red Book the year it was published. My wife-to-be gave it to me as
a gift because she knew I had an interest in coins. Over the past
60 years I never lost my interest in the hobby, or in her.

The publisher of the commemorative edition asked me to autograph
them because it was too challenging to bring Dick Yeoman back to
do it."

To purchase the book via Whitman's web site, see:
Order Redbook Reprint

[When I suggested that my club buy some copies of the new first
edition Red Book Tribute Edition to give away at our meetings for
kids, our President promptly declared the book "stupid."   I thought
it would be a good way to teach the kids some hobby history and
introduce the investment potential.  But republishing a fifty-year
old book had no appeal whatsoever to a dealer concerned with the
here and now.  Oh, well - we bibliophiles are used to being out
of step with the rest of the world.

However, I did hear extensive praise for Whitman's Red Book series
of new guides on specialized topics.  The compact, affordable volumes
pack a tremendous amount of information into an easily portable
package.  The dealer said that all except the guide to Proof Sets
have been big sellers for them.

The trend toward a larger number of smaller inexpensive references
continues with Krause Publications' new series.  I think these will
be a welcome addition to the bourse room floor.  Who wants to
carry a telephone book around all day?

(Of course, our younger readers may not even know what a telephone
book is, any more than they understand what "sounding like a broken
record" means). -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization 
promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor 
at this address: whomren@coinlibrary.com

To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum