The phrase "an old edition" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it when referring to a previous version of a book, magazine, or any published material that is no longer the most current version.
Example: "I found an old edition of the novel at the used bookstore, and it had a different cover design than the latest release."
Alternatives: "a previous edition" or "an earlier version".
(I read an old edition, which would be fine — the latest costs a small fortune).
He pointed to an old edition of Izvestiya, scattered at the bottom of the stairs.
If you read this book, you will then go looking for an old edition of Cotton Mather's "Magnalia Christi Americana".
The copy must have made a big impression on Mr. Pelly, because Barbara de Limburg's set reproduces pages from an old edition as if they were wallpaper.
Finally, there are books by authors Ms. Vanderbilt remembers reading as girl, including an old edition of the complete works of Edna St .Vincent Millay.
Wanting a copy of Martin Eden, he is only able to find an old edition of London's lesser work The Son of the Wolf.
Mr. Whitehead, an engineering manager who has lived here for 20 years, also bought and donated an older edition of the book to be displayed in a glass case.
I will be assigning a number of problems out of the book, so if you have an older edition of the textbook, you'll have to look at the 7th edition in order to find out what problems to do.
A cartoon that was commissioned by Cornell's Food and Brand Lab and published with the original study depicts a beefy newer edition of the book haranguing an older edition, jeering at its brother, "I have 44% more calories per serving than you do!" Wansink's tiny sample set, especially, gnawed at the couple.
"A really savvy student might do the extra work to comparison shop or to call a professor to see if it's O.K. to use an older edition, but that will be uncommon behavior in the marketplace," Mr. Rosenfeld said in a phone interview.
Go with an older edition.
