# Is "Cold Hand in Mine" by Robert Aickman a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Cold Hand in Mine by Robert Aickman (Victor Gollancz Ltd, London, 1975) is identified by: Full title on the title page: Cold Hand in Mine: Eight Strange Stories. UK first: Victor Gollancz Ltd, London, 1975 — the true first and the edition collected as such.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Full title on the title page: Cold Hand in Mine: Eight Strange Stories
- Octavo, bound in violet/purple cloth with the spine lettered in gilt (independently described as "violet cloth" by one ABAA dealer and "purple cloth with gilt to spine" by a PBFA dealer — the same binding)
- L. W. Currey records no statement of printing on the copyright page, so the Gollancz first is identified negatively: the 1975 Gollancz imprint with no impression line or later-printing statement added
- The dust wrapper is non-pictorial, in Gollancz's typographic house style of the period, and a printed price is present at the front flap; price-clipped jackets are common on this title
- An advance uncorrected proof of the first edition exists and is separately catalogued by ABAA dealers
- Publisher imprint reads Victor Gollancz Ltd, London
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Robert Aickman |
| Publisher | Victor Gollancz Ltd, London |
| Year | 1975 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Full title on the title page: Cold Hand in Mine: Eight Strange Stories |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
Full title on the title page: Cold Hand in Mine: Eight Strange Stories. Octavo, bound in violet/purple cloth with the spine lettered in gilt (independently described as "violet cloth" by one ABAA dealer and "purple cloth with gilt to spine" by a PBFA dealer — the same binding). L. W. Currey records no statement of printing on the copyright page, so the Gollancz first is identified negatively: the 1975 Gollancz imprint with no impression line or later-printing statement added. The dust wrapper is non-pictorial, in Gollancz's typographic house style of the period, and a printed price is present at the front flap; price-clipped jackets are common on this title. An advance uncorrected proof of the first edition exists and is separately catalogued by ABAA dealers.

## Is this the true first?
UK first: Victor Gollancz Ltd, London, 1975 — the true first and the edition collected as such. It precedes the first American edition, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1977, which is collected in its own right chiefly for its Edward Gorey dust-jacket illustration; the Scribner's binding is described as black cloth with silver spine lettering under a white jacket with black type, but that description is single-sourced and should be treated as provisional, and no first-printing point for the Scribner's issue (statement, number line or seal) could be confirmed. One correction to the census note: the 1975 World Fantasy Award for Short Fiction went to the story "Pages from a Young Girl's Journal", which first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, February 1973 — the award attaches to the story, not to the Scribner's edition or to either book. The Faber (2014) and Tartarus Press reissues are "first thus".

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
A Book Club Edition of the Scribner's US printing exists and is offered by dealers, so the US edition must be screened before it is called a first. Period BCE tells apply: no printed price at the jacket flap, a blind stamp or small impressed mark on the rear board, and thinner, cheaper boards than the trade issue. No book-club printing of the Gollancz first is documented.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Cold Hand in Mine* by Robert Aickman a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/cold-hand-in-mine
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.