# Is "Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder" by William Hope Hodgson a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder by William Hope Hodgson (Eveleigh Nash, London, 1913) is identified by: London, Eveleigh Nash, 1913: collating [i-iv] v-vii [viii-x] 11-287 [288: advertisement], containing SIX Carnacki stories. UK first and true first: Eveleigh Nash, London, 1913, six stories — census claim confirmed.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- London, Eveleigh Nash, 1913: collating [i-iv] v-vii [viii-x] 11-287 [288: advertisement], containing SIX Carnacki stories
- Original red cloth, front panel stamped in gold and blind, spine panel stamped in gold, rear panel stamped in blind
- Copies were issued both with and without a 16-page publisher's catalogue inserted at the rear, and priority, if any, is unknown — so the catalogue's presence or absence neither confirms nor disqualifies a copy, a point worth stating plainly because dealers sometimes imply otherwise
- There is no edition statement and no number line; identification rests on the Nash imprint, the six-story contents and the collation
- Count the stories first: six means the 1913 Nash first, nine means the 1947 Mycroft & Moran text or a descendant of it
- Publisher imprint reads Eveleigh Nash, London
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | William Hope Hodgson |
| Publisher | Eveleigh Nash, London |
| Year | 1913 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | London, Eveleigh Nash, 1913: collating [i-iv] v-vii [viii-x] 11-287 [288: advertisement], containing SIX Carnacki stories |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
London, Eveleigh Nash, 1913: collating [i-iv] v-vii [viii-x] 11-287 [288: advertisement], containing SIX Carnacki stories. Original red cloth, front panel stamped in gold and blind, spine panel stamped in gold, rear panel stamped in blind. Copies were issued both with and without a 16-page publisher's catalogue inserted at the rear, and priority, if any, is unknown — so the catalogue's presence or absence neither confirms nor disqualifies a copy, a point worth stating plainly because dealers sometimes imply otherwise. There is no edition statement and no number line; identification rests on the Nash imprint, the six-story contents and the collation. Count the stories first: six means the 1913 Nash first, nine means the 1947 Mycroft & Moran text or a descendant of it.

## Is this the true first?
UK first and true first: Eveleigh Nash, London, 1913, six stories — census claim confirmed. The 1947 edition (Mycroft & Moran, the Arkham House imprint, Sauk City, Wisconsin; 3,050 copies; edited by August Derleth; dust jacket by Frank Utpatel; c. 241 pp.) is the first US edition and the first ENLARGED edition, adding three stories — 'The Haunted Jarvee' (published posthumously in The Premier Magazine, 1929), 'The Hog' (Weird Tales, 1947) and 'The Find' (previously unpublished) — for nine in total. Both are legitimately collected, and the census is right that both states matter, but the 1947 is a textbook 'first thus' trap: it is the first book appearance of those three stories and the first US printing, NOT the first edition of the collection. Catalogue it precisely as 'first American / first enlarged edition,' never as 'first edition.'

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented for either the 1913 Nash or the 1947 Mycroft & Moran edition; the Arkham House printing was limited to 3,050 copies, which constituted the whole issue. A 1947 copy should retain its Frank Utpatel dust jacket. Later Hodgson revivals, Arkham reprints and paperbacks are told by ISBNs and modern typography; any copy containing nine stories is the 1947-or-later text, not the Nash first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder* by William Hope Hodgson a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/carnacki-the-ghost-finder
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.