John Wisden was born in Brighton in 1826 and became a professional cricketer with Sussex (1845-63). He subsequently owned a tobacconist's and sports equipment store in Leicester Square, London and decided to launch the Almanack as an advertisement for his business.
The first issue was in 1864 and annual publication has continued uninterrupted to the present day making Wisden the longest running sports annual in history. The first edition carried 116 pages; the edition for 2006 includes 1600 pages plus adverts.
Wisden was first produced in paper wrappers - coloured salmon pink, buff and yellow in various years thereafter - until 1937 when, with a change of publisher, yellow limp cloth was adopted.
Second editions were also published from 1889-1901. These are marked by the phrase "Second Issue" on the front cover.
Bookmarkers in the shape of a cricket-bat are to be found in copies for years 1933-1939. It is important to the value of a copy, that these are handled with care.
A hardback or cloth board bound version in dark brown colour with gilt lettering was also introduced in 1896 and continued to be published in tandem - but in much smaller numbers until after WWII, when, once war paper restrictions had been raised, this was increased to just under half the limp cloth quantity figure (21,500-10,500). Production levels today reflect the opposite trend - 36,000 in hardback; 4,000 in limp wrappers.
Hardback copies were sold in yellow dust wrappers from 1965. Today, exact facsimile wrappers are available where the originals have been lost or damaged. Unfortunately the part of the dust wrapper covering the spine tends to fade over time due to exposure - on a shelf - to the sun.
The "Five Cricketers of the Year" photographic feature appeared in 1897, 1898, 1902-08, 1910-11, 1914-15, 1922-23, 1925, 1927-29 and from then on accompanied by other illustrations - except in the issues 1941-1946. A player can only appear once in his career in this feature. It is important to check that the photo plates are still present when choosing a pre-war year.
Where original paper bound copies have become 'distressed' - i.e.
• lacking upper/lower wrappers
• missing pages of adverts/text/photo plates
• by exposure to damp stains
• pages torn or suffering from text markings
they may - and often have been professionally repaired. Unfortunately in many cases the book binder has neglected use of a cloth similar in texture and colour to the original Wisden dark brown, nor copy the gilt, font and style of lettering used thereon. This is reflected in the reduced price a rebound copy will achieve in the market.
Original publisher's rebinds, usually of pre-WWII copies, are occasionally offered. These are recognised where the same brown cloth, gilt, font and style of lettering have been employed on hardbacks of the particular year, but, where the original copies have adverts on the front/back endpapers and pastedowns printed on a yellow base, the rebinds lack these adverts and are in blank white paper.
Ian Dyer Cricket Books employ the services of a professional bookbinder who will rebind copies using paper wrappers that - through computer chromatography - provide an exact match to the original covers and any text pages necessary.
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