Red Herring

For years Pulitzer collectors were looking for the first state, first edition of John Marquand's The Late George Apley, but they could only find the second state on the market. According to several guidebooks, the difference between the states was found one page 19, line 1. The first state of the first printing said “Pretty Pearl” while the second state said “Lovely Pearl”.

The idea of a first and second state was accepted as fact. But then Pulitzer collectors began to realize two things:

1. Nobody had ever seen an actual first edition in the first state (“Pretty Pearl” instead of “Lovely Pearl”.)

2. But they did see “Pretty Pearl” in all later printings. And that didn’t make much sense. It didn’t seem likely that the publisher started with “Pretty Pearl”, changed it to “Lovely Pearl”, and then changed it back to “Pretty Pearl”.

Recently, collectors started to suspect that perhaps there never was a first state of the first printing, and many have concluded that the guidebooks were wrong. So it seems that for years Pulitzer collectors were looking for a red herring, and book dealers were charging a discount because they thought they had the second state (when in fact there was no first or second state.) Now I have observed that the price of The Late George Apley has increased significantly as people realize the true value of their first editions.

For first edition points of The Late George Apley and a further explanation of the supposed first and second state click here.