Gutter code

The gutter code was used by Doubleday, and their Science Fiction Book Club (SFBC), from 1958 to 1988 to indicate when a Book Club Edition (BCE) was printed. The codes are stamped into the gutter of one of the last printed pages of the publication. These publications do not state the printing date nor printing meaning the gutter code is the only way to date them reliably if secondary sources such as book club fliers are not available.

Please note that "gutter code" is an informal name used by book collectors. Doubleday and the SFBC have never formally acknowledged their existence.

The gutter code is a letter followed by two digits. The letter indicates the year and the two digits are the week of the year. Sometimes the components are reversed and you will see two digits followed by the letter.

Here is an example of the gutter code found in The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories published by Doubleday. In this case the gutter code H 03 translates to either January 1966 or January 1977. As the copyright is 1976 we can narrow this down to that this publication was printed in January 1977.

Note that for first printings the week of printing is one, or sometimes two, months before the month of release. Thus the gutter codes are at best, a useful guide to help date a publication. If possible, consult Locus' list of forthcoming books, and/or the book club's monthly fliers to better establish a publication's release date.

The gutter code can be useful for identifying when a publisher does a second print run. For example, Asimov's Foundation's Edge was first printed with "M36" and shortly afterwards with "M39". Both print runs were in September 1982 and presumably the "M36" copies may have more value for collectors as it's the earlier printing.

Sometimes the Book Club edition is the first edition and the gutter code will be useful in establishing that the book club edition was printed earlier than the retail/trade edition. As noted earlier, it should be emphasized though that the gutter code was the printing date and that the story is publicized or "released" a few weeks or months later. Thus a gutter code a few weeks before the retail/trade release offers only a hint, and does not prove that the book club edition was released first.

Here is a table to translate from the gutter code's letter to year. In 1970 Doubleday reset the letter code back to "A" but continued to use both the old and new lettering system throughout the 1970s. Thus you will also need to look at the copyright date to determine if the publication is coded using the first or second letter series. The Example Title column lists examples of known/verified gutter codes and also shows the stated publisher plus original copyright date. Note that while a publication may state a publisher it's believed that all of these were manufactured in Doubleday's plants.

Code	Year	Example Title
##	1958	(The gutter code has no letter and just shows the week the publication was printed) 22 The Black Cloud (Harper & Brothers 1957) 23 A Touch of Strange (Doubleday 1958) 27 No Place on Earth (Doubleday 1958) 31 Lucky Starr and the Rings of Saturn (Doubleday 1958)
A	1959
B	1960	B-46 Star of Stars (Doubleday 1960)
C	1961	C48 From the Ocean, from the Stars (Harcourt, Brace & World 1961)
D	1962
E	1963
F	1964	F18 All the Colors of Darkness (Doubleday 1964)
G	1965
H	1966
I	1967	37I Element 79 (NAL 1967)
J	1968	J19 Where Eagles Dare (Doubleday 1967) (Not specfict)
K	1969
L or A	1970	08L Galactic Pot-Healer (Berkley 1969) A51 Year of the Cloud (Doubleday 1970)
M or B	1971	B11 Fun with Your New Head (Doubleday 1968)
N or C	1972	45N The 1972 Annual World's Best SF (DAW 1972)
O or D	1973	D15 The Overlords of War (Doubleday 1973) O25 The 1973 Annual World's Best SF (DAW 1973)
P or E	1974	E33 The 1974 Annual World's Best SF (DAW 1974) E36 Ancient, My Enemy (Doubleday 1974) P22 Soul of the Robot (Doubleday 1974)
Q or F	1975	Q30 The 1975 Annual World's Best SF (DAW 1975)
R or G	1976	G24 The Dragon and the George (Doubleday 1976) R26 The 1976 Annual World's Best SF (DAW 1976)
S or H	1977	H03 The Bicentennial Man: And Other Stories (Doubleday 1976) H32 The 1977 Annual World's Best SF (DAW 1977)
T or I	1978	I43 The Masters of Solitude (Doubleday 1978) I28 The 1978 Annual World's Best SF (DAW 1978) I51 The Chronicles of Amber: Volume I (Nelson Doubleday 1972)
U or J	1979	J13 Leviathan's Deep (Doubleday 1979)
V or K	1980	V10 The Man Who Loved the Midnight Lady (Doubleday 1980) K31 Fireflood and Other Stories (Houghton Mifflin 1979)
W or L	1981	L29 The 1981 Annual World's Best SF (DAW 1981) W codes have not been confirmed but it's assumed they exist and would be for 1981.
X or M	1982	M33 The 1982 Annual World's Best SF (DAW 1982) M36 Foundation's Edge (1982) M39 Foundation's Edge (1982) X codes have been confirmed for reprints but it's not been verified that they were in 1982.
Y or N	1983	N32 Fevre Dream (Poseidon Press 1982) N34 The 1983 Annual World's Best SF (DAW 1983) Y codes have been confirmed for reprints but it's not been verified that they were in 1983.
O	1984	O30 The 1984 Annual World's Best SF (DAW 1984)
P	1985	P035 The 1985 Annual World's Best SF (DAW 1985)
Q	1986	Q31 The 1986 Annual World's Best SF (DAW 1986)
R	1987	R28 The 1987 Annual World's Best SF (DAW 1987)
S	1988

The 1988 and 1989 issues of the Annual World's Best SF series do not have gutter codes.

Here is the translation the week number to a month. As many weeks span from the end of one month to the beginning of the next the translation is not exact.

Week	Month
1 to 5	January
6 to 9	February
10 to 13	March
14 to 17	April
18 to 22	May
23 to 26	June
27 to 30	July
31 to 35	August
36 to 39	September
40 to 44	October
45 to 48	November
49 to 52	December

The boundary between July and August varies from year to year. If it's not a leap year then July runs from week 27 to 30 and August is 31 to 35. If it's a leap year then July runs from week 27 to 31 and August is 32 to 35. Thus if you have a publication with a week code of 31 then it's an early August printing for non-leap years and a late July printing for leap years (letter codes B, F, J, N/C, R--/G, K, O, and S are leap years).

Sources/references:

• SW - AbeBooks book seller who has been very helpful with filling in the details of the gutter code sytsem.
• The on line article Collecting the Science Fiction Book Club by Timothy Doyle which is excellent.