The Lizzie Borden Axe Murder Trial by Joan Axelrod-Contrada

[Fargo]

Does anyone else have this book? If so, What does the cover look like ?

I have a mystery on my hands. I bought my copy of this book in 2005. My local bookstore ordered it for me. The cover of my book is the same as the cover that is shown on Amazon, with one exception.

The Amazon cover shows Lizzie's face in colour, Lizzie wearing a purple coloured dress and the background is green. My book has Lizzie, her dress and the background in black and white. However the title on my book is in yellow, just like in the Amazon picture.

I never thought much of it when I got the book. I just thought that the picture on Amazon had some colour added to it.

Now I noticed a collection of 4 Lizzie books for sale on ebay, one of them being this book and Lizzie, her dress, and the background are in colour.

Unless the seller copied the colour picture from the computer then something is wrong. My book was printed in 2000, as far as I know there was no second printing.

[mbhenty]

Yes Fargo:

There have been multiple editions (better yet printings) of this title. The publisher, Enslow, publishes books for kids, mostly directed towards schools and libraries.

My edition of Axelrod-Contrada's book is a 4th printing. Many would call it the 4th edition. On the copyright page, towards the bottom you will find a series of numbers. For example: mine shows 10 9 8 7 6 5 4. Ending in 4. Missing are the 1, 2 and 3 which means that my copy is the 4th printing.

Now, whether the colorized Lizzie was for the 1st edition only, or whether it was done in later editions, I don't know. In my edition lizzie is in black and white, also with the yellow lettering.

I think that the book is now out of print, that is, I don't think the publisher is publishing it anymore. This format is part of a collection in a murder series. I don't know how many there are in the series but below is an example, all of which can still be ordered through the publisher is not found through other mediums:

[william]

For what it's worth:

I have a copy of this book, Second Printing/Edition Published 2000
The ISBN ends in -223. - I would characterize the color of Lizzie's dress on the cover as being of a smoky purplish hue.

Bookfinder.com has fifteen copies of this book on sale from various sellers. All are indicated as being published in 2000 and have an ISBN ending in -223.

[mbhenty]

Yes William, my copy also ends in 22-3 as all copies of this title should. I believe that the 22 stands for the title in that publishers run and has nothing to do with number of editions/printings.

Below are photos of Axelrod-contrada's book including a portion of the title page and copyright page.

None-the-less, we must not confuse the publishing date with the copyright date; which may not necessarily be the same in the 1st edition. Publishing date should go on the title page, or at least that is the way it was usually done by publishers. But in more recent times and with the inception of the ISBN number most of the info is on the copyright page.

That is not to say that all editions were not published in 2000. But at least for my copy there is no where to indicate the year it was actually published (printed) That is to say that my copy could have actually been printed in 2003.

Of course this information only makes a difference to collectors, and on a book such as this really doesn't matter. In principle this title can be said to have been published in 2000.

If you look below you will see my copy. There is no way, by looking at the book, of telling which year my copy was published. I know it is a 4th edition. The number line tells me that. At the top of the copyright page it lets me know that it was copyrighted in 2000. But no where does it tell me which year my copy was published.

What does this all mean? You got me

[Tina-Kate]

If there's no additional info, e.g. "Second Printing, 2001", I would say you have an original print run from 2000.

Lots of books never get a second run.

[mbhenty]

Yes Tina: Very well may be.

Let us say the book was published in March of that year. It could sell out almost immediately. The second could, be printed in April and also sell out, etc.

Another practice done by printers is just to start with one printing and schedule a printing every month or so. Thus yes, all copies could have been printed in 2000. Still though, nowhere in the book does it state the actual date the book was actually stamped out.

Pleas understand, on a insignificant book such as this all this information means nothing. Even to the collector. Even a purist (collector) as myself, a later edition in this title is deemed acceptable.

Of course, what we are trying to decipher is the cover, as brought up by FARGO. He was questioning the discrepancy in cover color, being Lizzie's image. What I was speaking to was the fact that there could have been multiple editions and at some time the color was changed. In the book collecting world changes such as these can make all the difference as to the value of a 1st edition.


What does this all mean? Again, you got me