Patricia Highsmith First Editions

• Strangers on a Train — 1950 · Harper & BrothersUS Harper first, 1950. Harper used a printer's code (a letter-pair) at the foot of the last text page denoting month/year of printing; the first printing carries the code for 1950. First-state dust jacket with its printed price. Highsmith's debut novel. US Harper 1950 is the true first, preceding the UK Cresset Press edition. The US first is the desirable copy; basis for Hitchcock's 1951 film. Book Club editions lack the Harper code on the last page and have a rear-board blind stamp. Confirm by the Harper printer's code denoting the earliest date and the priced first-state jacket.
• The Price of Salt — 1952 · Coward-McCannPublished under the pseudonym 'Claire Morgan.' Issued in a single Coward-McCann hardcover printing in 1952: quarter black cloth over green boards with red stamping; no later-printing statement; first-issue jacket carries the printed price. Later reissued as 'Carol.'. US Coward-McCann hardcover (1952, as Claire Morgan) is the true first. The Bantam paperback (1953) is a later printing, and the 'Carol'-titled editions are much later. The 1953 Bantam paperback is frequently mistaken for the first; it is a reprint. No hardcover book-club edition of note.
• The Blunderer — 1954 · Coward-McCannCoward-McCann, Inc., New York, 1954. Because the book was first published in the United States, Coward-McCann applied NO edition statement at all — the first printing is identified by the ABSENCE of any later-printing notice on the copyright page. The firm reserved the "First American Edition" statement for books first published abroad, so its presence would indicate a different book, not a later state of this…. The census claim stands: US Coward-McCann 1954 is the true first, preceding the first UK edition by two years. The first British edition is The Cresset Press, London, 1956 — red textured paper boards, 284 pp, with an uncredited dust jacket — and is separately collected as the first UK appearance. Important "first thus" trap: the retitled Lament for a Lover is the 1956 Popular Library US paperback, NOT the British…. No dedicated book-club printing of the 1954 Coward-McCann issue was documented in the sources consulted, so no title-specific club tells can be given. Apply the generic tells only: no price present at the jacket flap, a blind stamp or small dot to the rear board, lighter bulk, and cheaper paper.
• The Talented Mr. Ripley — 1955 · Coward-McCannUS Coward-McCann, New York, 1955 — the true first edition of the first Ripley novel (Highsmith's third novel overall). The copyright page shows 1955 with no statement of a later printing. The correct first-issue dust jacket is priced at the front flap (unclipped copies retain the printed price present on the flap). The 1955 Coward-McCann imprint together with the priced first-issue jacket identifies the first. Precedence: the US Coward-McCann first (1955) PRECEDES the UK Cresset Press first (1957) by two years and is the true first. Both editions are separately collected — the Cresset Press 1957 is the first UK edition, not the world first. Note: this is the first Ripley novel and should not be confused with Ripley's Game, a separate, later title (US Knopf, 1974). Later reprints and the UK Cresset Press edition are not the true first. Confirm by the 1955 Coward-McCann imprint and the priced first-issue jacket (price present at the flap).
• Deep Water — 1957 · Harper & BrothersThe first printing is identified by the Harper & Brothers two-letter code on the copyright page, which must read "H-G". Under the Harper code system in use from 1912, the first letter is the month and the second the year: G is 1957 and H is the eighth month, so "H-G" denotes an August 1957 printing, consistent with the 1957 title-page date. Any later code letter in the year position marks a reprint. The book is…. Census claim confirmed. Harper & Brothers (New York) 1957 is the true first edition; the Heinemann (London) edition followed in 1958, so US precedence is not in question here. The Heinemann 1958 is nonetheless collected: it is the first of the sixteen Highsmith novels Heinemann published in Britain and is reported to be the scarcest of the early Highsmith British firsts, Heinemann having underestimated the print…. For the Harper first, any copyright-page code whose year letter is later than G is a reprint. For the UK Heinemann 1958, the book was reprinted within its year of publication, so the 1958 date alone does not establish a first impression: the same-year reprint carries reviews of Deep Water itself on the back flap of the jacket, which the first impression does not, and the copyright line should be checked in parallel.
• The Tremor of Forgery — 1969 · HeinemannBoth the UK Heinemann and the US Doubleday editions appeared in 1969. The Doubleday US edition is documented with a March 1969 release. A first printing of either carries the jacket price on the flap and no later-printing statement. Collect the edition whose priority you can establish for your copy rather than assuming one nation precedes. Priority between the two 1969 editions is not reliably established. The record's assertion that UK Heinemann precedes US Doubleday could not be confirmed; the documented March 1969 Doubleday date may in fact precede or run concurrent with Heinemann. Treat US-versus-UK precedence as unresolved and verify against a standard Highsmith bibliography for the specific copy. A US book-club edition is common (blind-stamp to the board, no price on the jacket).
• Ripley Under Ground — 1970 · Doubleday & CompanyThe first printing carries "First Edition" stated on the copyright page. Physically: octavo, 275 pp., publisher's beige cloth (one seller describes the same binding as grey, so treat the shade as description variance rather than a variant state), with the titling and design stamped in red on the spine. The jacket is pictorial and is a priced jacket, with the price present at the front flap and unclipped on a…. The census claim is correct: Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1970 precedes the UK Heinemann edition of 1971, and it is the second Ripliad title, needed alongside the 1955 first of The Talented Mr. Ripley (Coward-McCann, not Doubleday — do not conflate the two publishers across the series). Both the Doubleday 1970 and the Heinemann 1971 are collected; the Heinemann first is issued in an illustrated jacket after…. Documented for this title: a Doubleday book-club copy bound in light tan boards with plain white endpapers and brown lettering to the spine — set against the trade first's beige cloth with red spine stamping — and issued without a jacket or with an unpriced one. General Doubleday club tells apply: the blind-stamped device at the lower rear board, no price at the jacket flap, lighter and thinner paper and boards,….
• Ripley's Game — 1974 · William HeinemannHeinemann (London, 1974): first impression carries a "First published 1974" statement on the copyright page with no later impression line added beneath it; later Heinemann impressions add that impression statement. The photographic dust jacket is credited to Graham Miller, with the price present at the front flap. Knopf (New York, 1974): the copyright page carries a "First American Edition" statement — Knopf's…. CENSUS CLAIM CORRECTED. The census recorded Knopf (New York) 1974 as the true first on an assumption of near-simultaneity with US priority; this is wrong. Heinemann published in London on 11 March 1974, some two months ahead of Knopf's May 1974 issue, and the Knopf copyright page's own "First American Edition" statement concedes the precedence. The Heinemann is therefore the true first edition; the Knopf 1974 is…. Later Heinemann impressions are stated as such on the copyright page. The Knopf edition went through several printings, so a Knopf copy must be checked for the unqualified "First American Edition" statement rather than accepted on the 1974 title-page date alone. No separate book-club issue of either edition is documented in the sources consulted. The principal reprint trap is the Heinemann Uniform Edition of….
• The Talented Mr. Ripley (Ripley's Game) — 1974 · William HeinemannThis entry is for RIPLEY'S GAME, the third Tom Ripley novel, not The Talented Mr. Ripley. The true first is the UK William Heinemann hardback, published 11 March 1974. The first US edition, Alfred A. Knopf, followed in May 1974 with text lightly Americanised. On a Heinemann first impression the copyright page carries only the first-published statement with no later-impression line. The UK Heinemann edition (11 March 1974) is the true first, preceding the US Knopf edition (May 1974) by about two months. Note that the title as listed conflates two different books: this record describes Ripley's Game, which is distinct from The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955), the first Ripley novel. Book-club and later reprints lack the original first-impression jacket, carry reprint imprints or club blind-stamps, and show no first-published statement on the copyright page.

More Mystery, Crime & Thriller shelves: P.D. James, Raymond Chandler, Reginald Hill, Rex Stout, Richard Stark (Donald E. Westlake), Robert B. Parker.

← All authors · All genres · part of the First-Edition Identification resource.