o1929 GM New York Trade edition

Gods’ Man New York Trade Edition – Electrotype

1929 October 1^st Ed. 1^st printing (Gods’ Man, the trade edition, which first came out in October, 1929, within a week of the stock market crash).

sold 20,000 copies and went through six printings in four years.

In an interview with Gil Williams from a special Lynd Ward issue of the Bibliognost: The Book Collector’s Little Magazine in 1976, Ward described this edition –

The trade edition was printed from electrotype. This is not a camera form of reproduction but a form that employs a mold into which first copper and then lead are poured. Thus, instead of approximating on film what has been put on paper, the block itself is reproduced by a casting process. The electrotype for this edition is believed to have been melted down in support of the war effort during the Second World War.

First edition, first printing;

• Publisher: Jonathan Cape and Harrison Smith, NY
• 8.25” x 5.5″
• The book is bound in pictorial paper over one quarter black cloth.
  • This pictoral paper cover was used for printings 1 through 5.
  • In printing #6 by Peter Smith the cover was black cloth with a small printed label on the front. #6 had a dust jacket that used the pictoral design on printing #1 to #5.
• Paper label with black lettering on the upper spine.
• top edge text block stained black.
• fore-edge machine deckle.
• Black endpapers
• Unpaginated.
• printed recto
• 144 images
• Some suggested a dust jacket only on a later printing ie a version with a dust jacket was issued later by the publisher, Peter Smith.

Various Printings

Peter Smith published 6th printing??

I have no confidence in the accuracy of the following – if you have information about the 6th printing please advise.

wn@wordlessnovels.com

I believe the 6th printing by Peter Smith is the first time a dust jacket was used. Note:

• this printing has a black cloth cover with a small label
• the pictoral coverings used on printings #1 to #5 has been used by Peter Smith for the front of the dust jacket.