Theater video tags: AbeBooks

Book collectors and enthusiasts are always on the hunt for the elusive first edition of a book. AbeBooks explains the even rarer forms of editions that come before and are not often seen by the public.

First published in 1925, The Great Gatsby has been reprinted in many different editions and in many different formats. Richard from AbeBooks.com counts down thirty of the covers used to illustrate the novel over the past eighty-eight years.

As explained in this clip from AbeBooks, a first edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel The Great Gatsby sold for $182,000 at auction in 2009, and the reason it fetched such a high price was the presence of its dust jacket. A first edition of the novel without a dust jacket could sell for anywhere between two thousand and eight thousand dollars, depending on its condition.

This helpful video from AbeBooks demystifies the terms used to describe the physical parts of a book, including boards, hinge and joint, leaf, endpapers, book block, and plates.