How to date a book with no publishing date.

[lemmehavit61]

Hi,

I have a book, Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare and it has no publishing date. It does have a line of writing inside as it appears to been given to a person as a gift in 1935. How would one go about finding a publishing date for a book with no publishing date. I know there must be a way.

Thanks,

laurie.

[siddieswans]

OK this is what I do.

Go to book search

http://www.abebooks.com/

choose More Search Options. Then put in as much information as there is available - title, editor,  publisher, illustrator if there is one - that sort of thing. Then try and find something in the search results that matches your volume - often if there in "no date" the listings will say [n.d.] but they are professionals and will often have a guess - c1935 for example. But you already know that.  Have you checked the back of the LAST free page - sometimes it is there as well as on the front pages. But if there is no date, there is no date; - if you want to sell it I would just say "no date but inscription suggests circa 1935". If there is nothing like it on Book Search, you can always try Googling but Book Search for all but quite unusual titles will usually produce a relevant answer more quickly.

[twyngwyn]

Here's the search engine I use

http://used.addall.com/