# Is "For Love of Imabelle (A Rage in Harlem)" by Chester Himes a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of For Love of Imabelle (A Rage in Harlem) by Chester Himes (Fawcett Gold Medal, 1957) is identified by: A paperback original: there is no hardcover first, and the book is collected only in its original pictorial wrappers. The census claim is correct and, importantly, refutes a common dealer error.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- A paperback original: there is no hardcover first, and the book is collected only in its original pictorial wrappers
- The first is Fawcett Publications' Gold Medal #717, 1957 (Gold Medal's imprint address is Greenwich, Connecticut), with the number 717 printed on the front cover; the title is uncommon in collectible condition and scarce in any condition
- Fawcett's number-line printing code is a later practice and is not present on a 1957 Gold Medal, so identification rests on the imprint and number: Gold Medal 717, 1957, in wraps, with no later-printing statement on the copyright page
- Any copy showing a later-printing statement, a different Gold Medal number, or a different imprint is not the first
- Cover art is attributed to Mitchell Hooks in one sale record; that attribution is not independently corroborated and should be treated as unconfirmed
- This is Himes's first crime novel and the first appearance of Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones
- Publisher imprint reads Fawcett Gold Medal

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Chester Himes |
| Publisher | Fawcett Gold Medal |
| Year | 1957 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | A paperback original: there is no hardcover first, and the book is collected only in its original pictorial wrappers |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
A paperback original: there is no hardcover first, and the book is collected only in its original pictorial wrappers. The first is Fawcett Publications' Gold Medal #717, 1957 (Gold Medal's imprint address is Greenwich, Connecticut), with the number 717 printed on the front cover; the title is uncommon in collectible condition and scarce in any condition. Fawcett's number-line printing code is a later practice and is not present on a 1957 Gold Medal, so identification rests on the imprint and number: Gold Medal 717, 1957, in wraps, with no later-printing statement on the copyright page. Any copy showing a later-printing statement, a different Gold Medal number, or a different imprint is not the first. Cover art is attributed to Mitchell Hooks in one sale record; that attribution is not independently corroborated and should be treated as unconfirmed. This is Himes's first crime novel and the first appearance of Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim is correct and, importantly, refutes a common dealer error. The US Gold Medal paperback original of 1957 is the true first. The French edition — La Reine des pommes, Paris: Gallimard, Série noire no. 419, translated by Minnie Danzas, 253 pp. — appeared in 1958, a year AFTER the American issue, notwithstanding that Marcel Duhamel commissioned the book for the Série noire and that the French edition won the 1958 Grand Prix de littérature policière. Catalogue copy asserting the novel was "first published in France" is wrong on precedence; the Gallimard 1958 is collected as the first French edition and as the prize-winning issue, not as the first edition. The retitling to A Rage in Harlem is a first thus, not a first: Avon, 1965, Avon G1244.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition exists — the title was born as a mass-market paperback original. The reprint tells run the other way: Avon G1244 (1965) and every subsequent printing titled A Rage in Harlem are reprints under a new title, as are modern editions marketed as "For Love of Imabelle (formerly A Rage in Harlem)" or under the Harlem Cycle / Harlem Detectives series branding. Later Gold Medal printings of #717 state the printing on the copyright page.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *For Love of Imabelle (A Rage in Harlem)* by Chester Himes a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/for-love-of-imabelle-a-rage-in-harlem
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.