Problem with Jack Finney book Time and Again

[Dawn (& Ron)]

Bear with me on this long post, but I'm trying to explain as best I can and provide as much information to help others.

I've come across a strange problem, well at least for me it is. I have a physical hardcover edition of Jack Finney's Time and Again, ISBN 0671204971
My ISBN comes up with http://www.goodreads.com/book/edit/68... listing it with the first edition publication date, where mine has First Scribner Paperback Fiction Edition 1995. Also the cover is different cover image and I see no mention on the actual book as being part of a series. You may say well change it, but in researching this all sites including LOC have this listed as the first edition. Here is the LC control #71101873 listed in my book and LOC page http://catalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebre... This is the second page with a different LC control #95237939 that comes up for this ISBN http://lccn.loc.gov/95237939 but on this page the ISBN is listed as invalid and for a trade pb. Besides the ISBN info, the information on this page is correct to my edition. Also of note, my edition I assume is a bookclub since there is no price listed, it also has no barcode, there is a short number on the back which I've not been able to match up with anything 02952450, the ISBN is listed on the copyright page along with the paperback ISBN 0684801051, which matches the pb edition for the second LC control #95237939.

I have tried to do further research to find out if this was an error or if in fact they reused the original 1970 ISBN (if there was one) and can't find any information to verify anything. So I am at a loss as to what to do.

BTW, my actual book looks like this one and matches everything but ISBN and series http://www.goodreads.com/book/edit/87...

Dawn

[Violetta]

Not sure about the ISBN issue, but don't worry about the series. "SF Masterworks" isn't a series that this author wrote, it is a series of fiction classics started by Millennium Publishing as a companion to the SF Masterworks series.

[Dawn (& Ron)]

Thanks for letting me know about the series. I wasn't worried about the series, just mentioning it as a reference. But your info adds to my confusion since Millennium Publishing is not the publisher, nor is it or SF Masterworks mentioned anywhere.

Does anyone know how to tell when an ISBN was first issued?

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Dawn (& Ron) wrote: "Does anyone know how to tell when an ISBN was first issued?"

I don't believe there is a general way to do this. Sounds like you probably have an alternate cover edition.

[Dawn (& Ron)]

Rivka, I know you are way busier than most of us with this big change over, so this can wait until after everything settles down.

I would think that too about the alternate cover but what concerns me is that there was a 25 year difference in the ISBN used. Other ISBNs have been issued in between for other editions. Is this a common practice to go back and use such an old ISBN? The other concern is the LOC info, the fact that on one page this ISBN is listed as invalid and for a different book format while other things like publisher and such don't match up. Also this concern the 1970 first edition, which you know is important for book collectors. I can find no evidence, so far, of this ISBN being used for the original 1970 edition but yet this clearly marked 1995 edition keeps coming up as the first edition and that, as we know, is impossible, or maybe I'm missing something.

After things settle down and you super librarians get a chance, let me know what other info you may need to help get this figured out.

Thanks,
Dawn

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Dawn (& Ron) wrote: "Is this a common practice to go back and use such an old ISBN?"

Sadly, yes. I have no more info on this than you do.