Compared to the original, the facsimile is a steal
The Joy of Cooking has been around a long time, with a lot of revisions, but this is the one that started it all. The original is expensive, so it's a good thing the facsimile is available for those of us who want to read and use the old recipes without worrying about a fragile and expensive investment.
The book is charming, with comments written in a style that you'd use when passing recipes on to friends. The Canned Spinach Ring recipe is a fine example, "This isn't one bit exciting, but as an emergency dish it is to be recommended." It's interesting to ponder what sort of emergency would call for this particular dish.
Recipes harken back to the day when a healthy meal didn't mean quite what it does now. But the book also recognizes that things change, and there are comments about how things used to be done compared to the "modern way."
Some of the recipes have obviously fallen out of fashion, but reading them is interesting nonetheless. And it's also interesting to see what ingredients were common in 1931, compared to today.
As a cookbook to cook from on a regular basis, newer editions may be better. But as a look back at the past, this is a keeper.