2 Dick Francis first editions are documented on this shelf, from Dead Cert (1962) to Whip Hand (1979). Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Dick Francis 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 Dick Francis copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.

Dead Cert — 1962 · Michael JosephFirst edition, first impression: London, Michael Joseph, 1962 — publisher's deep red (maroon) cloth lettered in gilt on the spine, octavo, in the Trevor Denning-designed pictorial jacket with the original shilling-era price present at the foot of the front flap (unclipped). Dealer consensus (Peter Harrington ABA/ILAB, Buckingham Books, and others) treats the correctly priced, unclipped Denning jacket as the key…. London: Michael Joseph, 1962 is the true first edition. The first American edition (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1962) followed and is collected separately as the first US printing. No specific book-club points are documented in the sources consulted. Price-clipped jackets and married later-impression jackets are the common red flags on offered copies.
Whip Hand — 1979 · Michael JosephUK Michael Joseph first, 1979, with the 'First published in Great Britain' statement on the copyright page and no statement of a later impression. The second Sid Halley novel. It won the 1979 CWA Gold Dagger and the Edgar Award for Best Novel (awarded 1981 for the 1980 US edition) — one of only two novels to take both honors, alongside Le Carre's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. The UK Michael Joseph 1979 edition is the true first; the US Harper & Row 1980 edition is a first-thus and post-dates it. Book Club Associates (BCA) UK editions carry a BCA code and no jacket price and are not the first edition.

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