At 11:04 PM 1/30/97 -0600, Mr. Paul Lyman wrote:

>The "Trade Edition" no doubt just refers to what's being
>offered to the public. I've heard there's a "Library
>Edition" too, though I don't know what the differences would be.

Speaking in a general way, there are trade, library, and book club editions.
Trade editions are meant for sale to the general public; library editions
generally appear in a heavier binding due to the potential heavier use as
compared to a trade edition; book club editions are constructed more cheaply
than trade or library editions.

A word of warning, not necessarily relevant to the set under discussion;
some book club editions now appear with very little in the way of physical
charcteristics to distinguish them from true first editions. In some cases
the weight of two seemingly identical volumes may be the sole difference.
And, just to add a bit of paranoia to your day, a bookseller colleague of
mine reported buying a trade edition in a retail store only to later find it
was a book club edition. It seems people join book clubs, buy the title
through the book club as well as at their local chain store and return the
book club edition for a refund.

Regards,

Marc

Marcus W. Koechig
26 Oriole Lane
Trumbull, Ct. 06611-4918

"...and so there ain't nothing more to write about and I am rotten glad of
it..." H.F.