2 James Herbert first editions are documented on this shelf, from The Rats (1974) to The Fog (1975). Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that James Herbert 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 James Herbert copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.

The Rats — 1974 · New English Library, LondonThe true first is the New English Library hardback of 1974, issued in a pictorial dust jacket; the jacket should be priced at the front flap (unclipped), as price-clipping is common on this title. No printing statement or number line is documented for the NEL hardback, so identification rests on the NEL imprint, the 1974 date on the title/copyright leaf, and hardback format — there is no copyright-page 'first…. UK precedence: the NEL London 1974 hardback precedes the NEL paperback of the same year. ABA/ILAB/PBFA dealers catalogue the two states separately and explicitly — the hardback as the 'true first printing' and the 1974 paperback as the 'first paperback edition' — and review/reference sources likewise record NEL as having published the first edition in hardback. Both 1974 states are collected, but only the…. The 1974 NEL paperback and its reprints declare their own paperback history on the printer's page (a first paperback issue reads 'First NEL paperback edition November 1974'; a later printing adds a further 'This new edition...' line) — any such line rules the copy out as the hardback first. Later hardback reissues (Hodder, and the Centipede Press 2015 Rats Trilogy) are 'first thus,' not the 1974 first. No UK….
The Fog — 1975 · New English Library, LondonThe first-printing tell is the New English Library copyright-page convention: NEL states "First published by New English Library in [year]" or "First published in Great Britain [year]" on firsts, and the year in that notice should match the copyright year with no later-impression notice added. The hardcover is bound in black cloth-covered boards with gilt lettering to the spine, issued in a colour pictorial dust…. The census claim is confirmed: New English Library, London, 1975 is the true first of Herbert's second novel, and no US edition carries precedence. The first American edition was a Signet (New American Library) mass-market paperback, catalogue number W6708; sources consulted disagree on its year (variously given as 1975, 1976 and 1977), but it is a reprint either way and only the NEL hardcover is collected as the…. No book-club hardcover is documented for this title. The reprint traps are the later NEL, Hodder & Stoughton, Pan and Macmillan issues — including the 1988 NEL reissue — plus the much later Centipede Press illustrated edition, all of which are "first thus" rather than firsts. Because the 1975 hardcover run was directed at lending libraries, library-withdrawn copies are frequently offered as firsts; the library….

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