[ModLib] Dust Jacket Date Range Project: Can We Deduce Unobserved Dates?

[Scot Kamins]

Folks,

I'm wondering if we can deduce certain dates with, if not metaphysical  
certitude,  moral certitude? [:: Ah, the sound of google searches ... ]

For example, Little Women (http://www.modernlib.com/authors/aAuthors/alcottJackets.html 
) was in print 1950 - 1955. There were at least two printings of the  
book, but no one has ever reported seeing a second version of the dust  
jacket. Surely a second version would have appeared by now. So is it  
then safe to assume that the dates of the dust jacket shown on the ML  
page can be listed as 1950 - 1955? I assume so, so I have marked it as  
such.

Gatsby we know about from previously reported research: the first DJ  
without the Discontinued stamp was in use 1934 - 1939 (Spring), with  
the stamp only appearing on the Fall 1939 DJ. (http://www.modernlib.com/authors/fAuthors/FitzgeraldJackets.html 
)

Others are a bit edgier. For example, the (assumed) first DJ for The  
Education of Henry Adams appeared  in 1931 and I'm guessing lasted  
through 1938; 1939 would be the logical year for the transition to the  
new DJ along with the transition from Balloon cloth to Blumenthal  
bindings. I assume the DJ shown at ModernLib and labeled 1936 is the  
first DJ since Education is a very common title and I assume that if  
there were an older DJ it would have been reported by now. So can I  
date thecurrent 1936 image as 1931 - 1938? (No such conclusion can be  
drawn for the 1955 and 1963 images, and the 1970 image might have  
started in 1969 and may have lasted to 1974).

What do you think?

Scot Kamins
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