THE GERSHWIN YEARS. Introduction By Carl Van Vechten

DJ : Short for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps around the binding of a book.

price clipped : The portion of the dust jacket flap where the publisher prints the suggested price has been cut away. Usually this is a clean 1-2" diagonal cut made with scissors.

chipped : A defect in which small pieces missing from the edges.

4to : Or quarto. A term used generally to describe the approximate size of a book, a book that is about 10" to 12" tall and roughly squarish in shape. The term is based on the size of paper traditionally used by book printers which has been folded and cut into 16 pages.