Is My After Dark, My Sweet a First Edition?

The points of issue

• A paperback original, first published as Popular Library #716 in December 1955; the catalogue number appears on the front cover, and the book is a 16mo mass-market paperback collected only in its original wrappers
• Cover art is reported as by Ray Johnson
• Because the book was never issued in a contemporaneous hardcover, the 1955 Popular Library wraps are the first appearance in book form and the only first edition — there is no hardcover state to hunt, and any hardcover of this title is a later reissue
• Identification therefore rests on the imprint and number: Popular Library 716, 1955, in wraps, with no later-printing statement on the copyright page; a different Popular Library number or a stated later printing rules the copy out
• Condition, not points, is the practical constraint on this title: cover rubbing, spine creasing, and grease-pencil pricing to the front cover are endemic

How Popular Library marked a first edition

• Sequential catalog number on the spine/cover identifies the title; the number is not a printing count.
• First printing: the copyright page lacks a later-printing statement. Later Popular Library printings add a printing line, and a price bump on the same catalog number signals a reprint.

Full Popular Library first-edition guide →

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Confirm the first-edition statement — look for “First Edition,” “First Printing,” or the publisher’s equivalent wording.
3. Check for a number line or dated printing — the lowest number present is the printing; a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the tell.
4. Verify this is the US true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
5. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
6. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

The census claim is correct: the US Popular Library paperback original of 1955 is the true first, and no UK or foreign-language edition precedes or is simultaneous with it. There is no rival edition to name — everything else is downstream. Later UK and US reissues (including the Orion Crime Masterworks and Mulholland Classic editions) are reprints, "first thus" at best; the claim in the census that no hardcover appeared "until much later" is directionally right but the sources consulted do not fix a date for a first hardcover appearance, so no such date should be published.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club edition exists — the title is a mass-market paperback original. The reprint tells are the successor imprints rather than club markings: any copy bearing an imprint other than Popular Library, carrying an ISBN, or showing a number line is a later reissue, since none of those features belong to a 1955 Popular Library. Later Popular Library printings of #716 would be stated on the copyright page.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of After Dark, My Sweet a first edition?

A first edition of After Dark, My Sweet by Jim Thompson (Popular Library) is identified by: A paperback original, first published as Popular Library #716 in December 1955; the catalogue number appears on the front cover, and the book is a 16mo mass-market paperback collected only in its original wrappers.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A stated first edition, a number line ending in 1, or a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the key. The census claim is correct: the US Popular Library paperback original of 1955 is the true first, and no UK or foreign-language edition precedes or is simultaneous with it.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

No book-club edition exists — the title is a mass-market paperback original. The reprint tells are the successor imprints rather than club markings: any copy bearing an imprint other than Popular Library, carrying an ISBN, or showing a number line is a later reissue, since none of those features belong to a 1955 Popular Library. Later Popular Library printings of #716 would be stated on the copyright page.

I have a first edition of After Dark, My Sweet — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.