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Unlike first editions, proofs and advanced review copies of books were not printed to be consumed publicly. Proofs and advance review copies are printed for publishers, reviewers, and select magazines and bookstores as sneak previews of soon to be available books. Proofs and advance review copies may be different than the finished product, and the level of difference varies greatly. Some differences are minor and grammatical, while other proofs and advance reading copies have entire paragraphs or pages included that are edited out before the first official printing.
Even though book galleys are also early printed versions of books before they are widely released, galleys sometimes serve a slightly different purpose than proofs and advance reading copies. The typeset is determined and it has usually been proofed by an editor, but galleys are often used as the final proofreading copy for the author.
By their nature, proofs, advance review copies, and galleys are quite scarce, so if they are copies of successful titles, they are often considered to be highly collectible and valuable. They are great additions to personal rare book collections, and they can tremendous diversity and insight to the collection.
first edition. NY, Viking, 1939, first edition, first printing, dust jacket. Hardcover. No book is more identified with John Steinbeck than this masterpiece which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and which was the source for the film version directed b...
Heinemann, 1950. Proof Copy. Softcover. VG++. Ultra rare proof copy. 124 x 185cm, 230pp. Publisher's original buff paper wraps with titles and "PROOF COPY" to the front cover and titles and publisher's windmill device to the spine, 230pp. The wraps h...
New York: Dial Press, 1967. Softcover. Near Fine. Uncorrected galley proofs. Bradbound sheets printed rectos only on proofing paper. A little wear on the first and last pages, else near fine. A combination utopia/dystopia where the inhabitants live live...
Maclehose Press/Quercus, 2008. 1st Edition. F/F. The Millennium Trilogy – all first edition, first printing hardcovers with publisher's number line 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1, all in at least near fine condition. Uncorrected Proof Copies of The Girl with th...
New York: George Braziller, 1991. Signed by the Nobel laureate author. First U.S. edition / First printing. Uncorrected proof. White printed wrappers. Very fine. A beautiful copy and rare signed. Note: This is the uncorrected proof and should not be c...
From Orpheus Books
London: Faber and Faber, 1975. Uncorrected Proof. Very Good. Advance uncorrected proof of the first British edition. Bound in publisher's blue wraps printed in black with review slip laid in. From the library of Irish writer Francis Stuart, with pre...
McClelland & Stewart. 1st Edition. Soft cover. As New. Advance Uncorrected Proof of the story "Giving Birth," from Dancing Girls. Given out at publisher party pre-publication (1977). ...
From Jake's Place Books
New York: Harper & Row, 1966. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. First Edition, First Printing. Review copy, with publisher's slip loosely laid in. Near Fine, in a Very Good dust jacket with price intact. Light strip of sunning to to edge of c...
New York: Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence, 1979. A typed manuscript, there were reportedly only 20 copies printed and of REVENGE only - not the other two novellas. It was given to the publisher's representatives at a meeting in 1979 and PRECEDES ALL...
From Dale Steffey Books
NY, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1976, first edition, wrappers. Softcover. Advance copy, an uncorrected proof, edited by Chase Horton, these tales are Steinbeck's attempt to render Malory "into modern English," the importance to Steinbeck a...
Collins. London. 1959. PROOF COPY OF FIRST EDITION. 8vo. (7.9 x 5.5 inches). Illustrated throughout with charming line drawings by Judith Brook, including both sets of endpapers. A very good clean copy in publishers blue marbled paper wraps. In the origi...
From Paul Foster Books
Jonathan Cape, 1968. VG. Uncorrected Proof Copy. 13 x 18.5cm. Publisher's device in white repeated over lime green softcovers, 255pp. Gilbert, p612. Spotting to both covers with slight toning and creasing to the spine. Light creases to the corners ...
Léon Arnoult: La Variabilité du Gout dans les Arts. Les phases ornamentales de la mode (The variability of taste in the arts. The ornamental phases of fashion). Printed and published by Devambez "À l'enseigne du masque d'Or". Paris, 1921. ARNOULT Léon...
From Zikorn
New York: Bantam, April 1988. Hardcover. First Edition. Rare surviving first state of the first printing of the U.S. First Edition. This printing was recalled and destroyed after a scientist reviewing an advance copy for the journal Nature noticed that th...
From Books of the World
NY, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1976, first edition, wrappers. Softcover. Advance copy, an uncorrected proof, edited by Chase Horton, these tales are Steinbeck's attempt to render Malory "into modern English," the importance to Steinbeck a...
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