These days Wilbur Smith appears to be the byword in all current books Southern African and as time goes by his books ,particularly the Heinemann published series dating back to 1964,become more and more sought after,particularly but not necessarily only the 'first' editions.
His first book, under the full name of Wilbur A Smith,was 'When the Lion Feeds' an epic based in Natal and then the 'Goldfields', covering the last quarter of the nineteenth century and featured the Garrick family and their activities.Books like this and others that succeeded it,such as 'Dark as the Sun' and 'The Sound of Thunder' and many others,all published by Heinemann in London,are getting harder to find particularly 'first editions' and in good condition.
A word about 'first editions'.In some cases when advance publicity increases inital demand above expectation,a second print run takes place 'before publication' and the books concerned bear the statement 're-printed before publication'.This is true of 'When the Lion Feeds' and whilst the purists may not agree in my opinion these books should be regarded as 'First Editions'.Any other reprints do not qualify although there are a number which are reprinted in the same month after publication ! Again people collect what they want to collect but it does have a bearing on the price.
Of course MacMillan took over publication later and many of these books are collectable.
Apart from the collection aspect Wilbur Smith's stories are very readable whether in hard or soft cover !
On my web site "dougfindsbooks.com' you will find a specific category "Wilbur Smith" where currently 27 of his titles are listed.If I can assist you at all in finding any titles not listed please complete the 'book finding' section on my web site.It is free of charge.
No comments:
Post a Comment