storybook_farm: Different publishers have different rules for specifying if a book is a first printing. So get a guide such as First Editions: A Guide to Identification by Edward N. Zempel and Linda A. Verkler. (if you look at the various help information on this forum, the preferred guides will be listed). From my old edition of this guide under Martin Secker & Warburg 1976 Statement (this is the publisher of Wilt which was first published in 1976):
"Our first editions, and indeed first printings, bear
First published in England 19.. by
Martin Secker & Warburg Limited
14 Charlisle Street, London W1V 6NN
"Second and further impressions add below:
Reprinted 19..
Reprinted 19..
"Occasionally older books carry the words 'Second impression 19..., but this convention is no longer followed.
"Re-issues are similarly treated...
While the vast majority of books will follow the rules listed, there are occasional exceptions. And children's books can follow different rules than adult books for a particular publisher.
--
Jonathan Grobe