# Is "Death of a Ghost" by Margery Allingham a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Death of a Ghost by Margery Allingham (Heinemann, 1934) is identified by: The true first is William Heinemann Ltd, London, 1934; the Library of Congress catalogues it as "London, W. UK precedes US and the census claim is confirmed.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- CONFIRMED. The true first is William Heinemann Ltd, London, 1934; the Library of Congress catalogues it as "London, W. Heinemann, ltd. [1934]", the square brackets indicating the year is not printed on the title page
- Under the Heinemann rule in force from the 1920s, a first states "First published [Year]" or "First published in Great Britain [Year]" on the copyright page and notes later impressions beneath it; there is no number line, so a copy showing the first-published statement with no "reprinted" or "second impression" line under it is the first
- The Classic Crime Fiction first-edition checklist records the binding as blue boards lettered in silver with a priced jacket (price present at the flap); that binding description is single-sourced here and was not independently corroborated
- The first American edition is Doubleday, Doran for The Crime Club, Garden City, N.Y., 1934, which retains the UK title; the Library of Congress notes it has an "Illustrated t.-p. and lining-papers" — an illustrated title page and illustrated endpapers that the London issue does not share — and under the Doubleday, Doran rule it states "First Edition" on the copyright page, with no statement on later printings
- Publisher imprint reads Heinemann
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Margery Allingham |
| Publisher | Heinemann |
| Year | 1934 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | CONFIRMED. The true first is William Heinemann Ltd, London, 1934; the Library of Congress catalogues it as "London, W. Heinemann, ltd.… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
CONFIRMED. The true first is William Heinemann Ltd, London, 1934; the Library of Congress catalogues it as "London, W. Heinemann, ltd. [1934]", the square brackets indicating the year is not printed on the title page. Under the Heinemann rule in force from the 1920s, a first states "First published [Year]" or "First published in Great Britain [Year]" on the copyright page and notes later impressions beneath it; there is no number line, so a copy showing the first-published statement with no "reprinted" or "second impression" line under it is the first. The Classic Crime Fiction first-edition checklist records the binding as blue boards lettered in silver with a priced jacket (price present at the flap); that binding description is single-sourced here and was not independently corroborated. The first American edition is Doubleday, Doran for The Crime Club, Garden City, N.Y., 1934, which retains the UK title; the Library of Congress notes it has an "Illustrated t.-p. and lining-papers" — an illustrated title page and illustrated endpapers that the London issue does not share — and under the Doubleday, Doran rule it states "First Edition" on the copyright page, with no statement on later printings.

## Is this the true first?
UK precedes US and the census claim is confirmed. Heinemann, London, February 1934 is the true first — the month is double-sourced, given by both the Margery Allingham Society and Wikipedia's article on the novel, and the Library of Congress's UK record is consistent with it. Doubleday, Doran for The Crime Club, Garden City, N.Y., 1934 is the first American edition and is collected in its own right — name both. The title was not changed for the US market, so unlike Sweet Danger there is no retitle trap here; the trap is instead that the US Crime Club issue is far commoner than the London issue and is often described simply as "the 1934 first". Later Heinemann, Penguin, Bantam, Carroll & Graf and Felony & Mayhem issues are reprints.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The Doubleday/Crime Club book-club tells apply to the US issue and are well documented: an unpriced front jacket flap or "Book Club Edition" printed at the flap, a blind stamp debossed into the rear board near the spine, and a five-digit code in a white block on the jacket rear. Note one specific reprint trap recorded by the Library of Congress: the American Reprint Co. issue (New York, 1976) is catalogued "c1937" and as a "Reprint of the ed. published by Doubleday, Garden City, N.Y." — its 1937 copyright line is not a first-edition date. No UK book-club issue points specific to this title are documented in the sources consulted.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Death of a Ghost* by Margery Allingham a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/death-of-a-ghost
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.