Three forms of Innocence

July 28, 2014

I’m OCD about these things so you don’t have to be…
It turns out there are three versions/variations on the trade hard cover edition of Innocence.
All three of them contain the same information on their copyright pages listing an ISBN of 978-0-553-80803-2 as shown below.

The first version, the one I’m calling the “standard” version, has a dust jacket with the UPC on the back listing the same ISBN as the copyright page and was not issued with an autograph sheet:

Version #2 was sold online by Barnes & Noble. This one has a tipped in illustrated autograph page between the front free end paper and the half title. However the UPC on the back of the dust jacket does not match the one on the copyright page. This ISBN is 978-0-8041-7922-5.

Version #3 was sold online by Target. It has the same illustrated autograph page along with the same ISBN on the copyright page as version #2, but the UPC is the same as version #1. It also has an “Autographed Copy” sticker affixed to the front of the dust jacket.

So, which one is the “true first edition”? Sometimes even I’m not sure. However, considering the general availablity of version #1 and the limited availability of versions #2 & #3, I’m going with version #1 as the “true” first, even though technically all three are first editions. (After all, they all state “2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1” and “First Edition” on the copyright page…)