6 Angela Carter first editions are documented on this shelf, from Shadow Dance (1966) to Wise Children (1991) across 4 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Angela Carter 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 Angela Carter copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- Shadow Dance — 1966 · HeinemannFirst edition, London: William Heinemann, 1966, the copyright page stating 'First published 1966'; Carter's debut novel. Bound in grey cloth with gilt lettering to the spine and issued in the pink pictorial dust jacket designed by Roger Roberts. Genuinely scarce, and acclaimed on publication by Anthony Burgess. UK Heinemann (1966) is the true first. The US issue appeared under the different title 'Honeybuzzard' (Simon & Schuster, 1967) and, as a retitled later edition, is not a first of the original text. No notable book-club edition; the US retitling is a separate, later edition. Confirm the unclipped Roger Roberts pink pictorial jacket.
- The Magic Toyshop — 1967 · HeinemannFirst edition, London: William Heinemann, 1967, copyright page stating 'First published 1967'; Carter's second novel, winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. Early Carter firsts are scarce, particularly in the dust jacket. UK Heinemann (1967) is the true first; the US Simon & Schuster edition followed in 1968, so the UK precedes. No notable book-club edition.
- The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman — 1972 · Hart-DavisFirst edition, London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1972, octavo, roughly 220 pages, the copyright page stating 'First published 1972'. Bound in brown cloth titled in gilt to the spine, in the publisher's pictorial dust jacket, which carries its printed price (present on unclipped copies). The US issue appeared under the different title 'The War of Dreams' (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974). UK Hart-Davis (1972) is the true first. The retitled US edition 'The War of Dreams' (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974) is a later issue of the same text, not a first of the work. No notable book-club edition; the US retitling is not a true first of the work.
- The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories — 1979 · GollanczFirst UK edition, London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, copyright page stating 'First published in Great Britain 1979'; slim octavo in black paper boards with the yellow typographic Gollancz dust jacket. Carter's landmark feminist fairy-tale collection and her most collected title. UK Gollancz (1979) is the true first. The US Harper & Row edition also appeared in 1979; the UK edition is the established first, the US being a same-year American issue. No major book-club edition; later Penguin and Vintage printings are reprints.
- Nights at the Circus — 1984 · Chatto & WindusFirst edition, London: Chatto & Windus / The Hogarth Press, 1984, copyright page stating 'First published 1984'; in publisher's boards with dust jacket. Joint winner of the 1984 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. UK Chatto & Windus / Hogarth Press (1984) is the true first; the US Viking edition followed in 1985, so the UK precedes. No notable book-club edition.
- Wise Children — 1991 · Chatto & WindusFirst UK edition published 1991 by Chatto & Windus in London, hardcover in cloth boards with the original unclipped dust jacket. Carter's final novel, issued shortly before her death in February 1992. The Chatto & Windus 1991 UK hardcover is the true first edition. The first US edition followed from Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1992, so the UK edition precedes. No notable book-club edition reported for the first issue.
More Literary Fiction (US) & Award Winners shelves: Anne Brontë (as 'Acton Bell'), Anne Enright, Anne Frank, Anne McCaffrey, Anne Rice, Anne Tyler.
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