2 Alan Garner first editions are documented on this shelf, from The Weirdstone of Brisingamen (1960) to The Owl Service (1967). Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Alan Garner title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.

Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Alan Garner copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen — 1960 · CollinsWilliam Collins, Sons & Co., London, 1960 — Garner's first book, subtitled 'A Tale of Alderley', 224 pages, printed by the Collins Clear-Type Press. First-edition copies are bound in blue cloth with the spine stamped in silver and have pictorial map endpapers; the endpaper maps and the pictorial dust jacket are the work of George Adamson. Look for the price present at the front flap (unclipped) and a copyright…. Collins, London, 1960 is the true first, and this is firmly confirmed. The census claim about the American edition is WRONG and is corrected here: no Franklin Watts 1961 US edition appears in any source consulted, including Open Library's holdings for the title. The first American edition is Henry Z. Walck, Inc., New York, 1969 — nine years after the British first, as one specialist children's-book dealer states…. Later Collins impressions, the 1963 revised-text reprint, the Puffin and Armada Lion paperbacks (the 1971 US paperback reverted to the 1960 text), the Fontana and Collins Voyager reissues, the Odyssey Classics / Magic Carpet / Turtleback US reprints, and the HarperCollins 2010 fiftieth-anniversary edition with Garner's new preface are all reprints or 'first thus.' Sagebrush rebounds and library rebinds are common….
The Owl Service — 1967 · CollinsFirst edition, first impression: London, Collins, 1967. Collins of this period placed no edition statement on its firsts — the copyright page carries the first-publication date and no impression or reprint line, and that absence is the primary test; later impressions add a line ('Reprinted 1968', 'Second impression'). Original cloth lettered at the spine, in the pictorial dust jacket designed by Kenneth Farnhill;…. UK Collins (London), 1967 is the true first and precedes all others; it won both the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. The first American edition is Henry Z. Walck, Inc., New York, 1968, which states 'First American edition 1968' on the copyright page; it is bound in black cloth with a silver-stamped circular vignette to the front board and silver-lettered spine, in a jacket designed by…. No book-club issue is documented in the sources consulted. The commonest traps are later Collins impressions, which retain the 1967 first-publication date but add a reprint or impression line, and reissues following the 1969 ITV serialisation. Price-clipped and facsimile jackets are the other frequent substitution on the UK first.

More Literary Fiction (US) & Award Winners shelves: Alan Sillitoe, Alastair Reynolds, Albert Camus, Aldous Huxley, Ali Smith, Alice Walker.

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