# Is "Fantastic Mr Fox" by Roald Dahl (illus. Donald Chaffin) a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl (illus. Donald Chaffin) (George Allen & Unwin, 1970) is identified by: The 1970 George Allen & Unwin edition is illustrated by Donald Chaffin (not the later Tony Ross or Quentin Blake reissues) and uses the publisher's standard statement, 'First published in Great Britain in 1970,' with no later-printing line. The 1970 Donald Chaffin-illustrated edition is the genuine first appearance of the text.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The 1970 George Allen & Unwin edition is illustrated by Donald Chaffin (not the later Tony Ross or Quentin Blake reissues) and uses the publisher's standard statement, 'First published in Great Britain in 1970,' with no later-printing line
- It was issued in laminated colour-pictorial glazed boards and WITHOUT a dust jacket, and the boards carry no printed price
- Publisher imprint reads George Allen & Unwin
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Roald Dahl (illus. Donald Chaffin) |
| Publisher | George Allen & Unwin |
| Year | 1970 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | The 1970 George Allen & Unwin edition is illustrated by Donald Chaffin (not the later Tony Ross or Quentin Blake reissues) and uses the… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
The 1970 George Allen & Unwin edition is illustrated by Donald Chaffin (not the later Tony Ross or Quentin Blake reissues) and uses the publisher's standard statement, 'First published in Great Britain in 1970,' with no later-printing line. It was issued in laminated colour-pictorial glazed boards and WITHOUT a dust jacket, and the boards carry no printed price.

## Is this the true first?
The 1970 Donald Chaffin-illustrated edition is the genuine first appearance of the text. Precedence between the UK George Allen & Unwin issue and the US Alfred A. Knopf issue (also 1970) is disputed among dealers — they were close to simultaneous, so neither can be flatly asserted as 'the' true first over the other. Later Tony Ross and Quentin Blake illustrated printings are reissues, not the first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Because the original was issued in pictorial boards without a dust jacket, jacket-price and jacket blind-stamp tests do NOT apply to this title; identification rests on the Chaffin illustrations and the single 'First published in Great Britain in 1970' statement. Later illustrator reissues (Ross, Blake) are decades-later printings.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Fantastic Mr Fox* by Roald Dahl (illus. Donald Chaffin) a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/fantastic-mr-fox
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.