2 Lord Dunsany first editions are documented on this shelf, from The Gods of Pegāna (1905) to The King of Elfland's Daughter (1924) across 2 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Lord Dunsany 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 Lord Dunsany copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.

The Gods of Pegāna — 1905 · Elkin MathewsLondon: Elkin Mathews, 1905; octavo, viii + 94 pp.; Dunsany's first book, issued on a commission basis (the author paid for publication and took a commission on copies sold). Illustrated with photogravure plates by S. H. Sime (eight recorded), each with its tissue guard — the guards should be present, and the photogravure process, not halftone, is what the 1905 issue carries. Bound in paper-covered boards with a…. UK only. Elkin Mathews, London, 1905 is the sole first edition; no American edition of 1905 is recorded, so there is no simultaneous-issue or UK-vs-US precedence question — the census claim is confirmed. Later Elkin Mathews printings and reissues, and 20th-century reprints, are the 'first thus' traps; they carry their own dates and imprints and are not the 1905 issue. No book-club issue is documented in the sources consulted; the 1905 first predates the American book-club era. The practical reprint tells are imprint-based: later Elkin Mathews printings and modern reprints/print-on-demand facsimiles carry their own imprints and dates and lack the photogravure plates with tissue guards in original paper boards with a cloth backstrip.
The King of Elfland's Daughter — 1924 · G.P. Putnam's Sons, LondonBoth the UK and US firsts appeared in 1924 from Putnam, with a frontispiece by S.H. Sime. The UK has precedence: a signed limited edition of 250 numbered copies issued in May 1924, followed by the UK trade edition in June; the New York Putnam edition followed in October. Distinguish UK from US by the title-page imprint (the London and New York imprint denotes the UK issue; the imprint beginning with New York…. The UK Putnam edition takes precedence, led by the May 1924 signed limited edition of 250 copies, then the June trade edition; the New York Putnam edition is the US first, issued in October 1924. A cornerstone of pre-Tolkien fantasy. No book-club edition applies; the trap is the Ballantine Adult Fantasy paperback and other later reprints. Verify the 1924 Putnam imprint and use the title-page imprint to tell UK from US.

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