I recently had a great talk with Sam Stimpson, son of artist Tom Stimpson, and at the end he promised to scan and send me images of the printer’s proofs that his father had. He said it would probably be a few days but I was amazed to get them the next day. I have added them onto the end of the page and the next challenge is to get a copy of each which will take time but hopefully not too heavy a burden on the pocket. Most of them are available fairly cheaply from the ‘stack ’em high, sell ’em cheap’ online sellers but it’s always pot luck as to which edition one may get.
Having featured the later editions of ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ a few weeks ago I’ve now rescanned the earlier ones and they can all be found on the one page plus individually under their numbers.
I’m always on the look out for proof copies and recently picked up ‘Guns’ by Ed McBain. Often proof copies don’t have markings in them but this one has quite a few. Here is an example from page 145.
There was a whole line omitted.
I’ve been on the lookout for a ‘thick’ copy of ‘Live and Let Die’ from 1957 for a while but the price is usually more than I’m happy to pay. I eventually gave in to temptation and I put in a bid for a copy on eBay for which nobody else bid on so makes me wonder if I did pay too much? It’s in acceptable condition with nice white pages but looking at my ‘thin’ 1957 copy that is probably only acceptable as well. To make up for these two I have a 1960 edition which looks as though it has never been read. The ‘thin’ one is about 11mm while the ‘thick’ one is nearer19mm
