Red-spined AtD?

[Tore Rye Andersen]

This is probably a coincidence, but the first edition of George Orwell's 
"Nineteen Eighty-Four" was issued in both a green and a red jacket...
In all likelihood, Penguin Press ran out of green paper as they were 
printing that huge first printing of AtD (250,000 copies). I doubt that 
Pynchon would approve of what would otherwise be a cheap publisher stunt to 
sell more copies of AtD. Still, the variants are of course very interesting 
to collectors. Which variant was printed first, for instance? Collectors 
speak of 'first issues' of first editions. Midway through the first printing 
of Jonathan Franzen's 'The Corrections', for instance, the printers 
discovered that a couple of pages had been reversed, and they corrected this 
error before printing the rest of the first edition. Usually, the first 
issue is the most desirable (naturally), but if the second issue of the 
first edition is very small (say, a couple-three thousands) it can become 
more valuable than the first issue.
So the important information for Pynchon collectors here would be a) is the 
red or the green version the first issue? b) how many copies were printed of 
either edition?
My guess is that the green edition is the first issue (early copies sent out 
to reviewers seem to be green), but that the red edition is much more 
uncommon (online bookdealers all describe the binding as green). But I may 
be wrong: Penguin Press may have a warehouse filled with red copies and the 
market may soon be flooded with red variants, ideal for christmas presents.


>On Mon, 11 Dec 2006, Ya Sam wrote:
>
>I was rambling through some blogs and came across a snapshot of AtD on
>someone's desk and it's cover was whitish and the spine band was red as
>opposed to the green cover of my copy. How many these red-spined AtDs are
>there? (I am not posting the link to the picture as this blog community
>demands registration for being able to see the posts)

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