Is My Good-bye to All That a First Edition?

The points of issue

• Published 18 November 1929 by Jonathan Cape, London, the title styled on the title page as "GOOD-BYE TO ALL THAT" (hyphenated) above "An Autobiography" (Higginson & Williams A32)
• Collation [A]8 B-2E8, 224 leaves
• Bound in salmon (light red) cloth, spine stamped in gold "GOOD-BYE / TO / ALL THAT / [four diamonds] / ROBERT / GRAVES / JONATHAN CAPE", with the publisher's device blind-stamped on the rear board
• Photographic frontispiece portrait of Graves, with further black-and-white plates and maps including a double-page map, and a Dedicatory Epilogue to Laura Riding
• The jacket is a white photographic jacket printed in black, designed by Len Lye from a photograph by Alfred Cracknell; it is a priced jacket, with the price present at the spine/flap
• The defining point is textual and is a matter of STATE, not impression: the first state prints in full a short passage on p

How Jonathan Cape marked a first edition

• First printings state "First published [Year]" or "First published in Great Britain [Year]" on the copyright page with NO additional impression lines and traditionally NO number line
• Later printings noted by added lines (e.g. 'Second impression [year]', 'Reprinted...') — their presence disqualifies a first

Full Jonathan Cape first-edition guide →

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Check for a number line or dated printing — the lowest number present is the printing; a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the tell.
3. Verify this is the American true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
4. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
5. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

Jonathan Cape, London, 18 November 1929 is the true first and the edition collected; the census claim is confirmed. The first American edition is Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith, New York, published 13 January 1930 — nearly two months later — and it follows the expurgated text, so it cannot carry the first-state points at all and is not a substitute for the London issue. Note the title styling: the 1929 first is "Good-bye to All That", hyphenated, on its title page.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

The real trap is not a book club but the 1957 revision: Graves substantially rewrote the book for Cassell (London) and Doubleday (New York) in 1957, and that rewritten text — the one in print ever since — is a different book from the 1929 original, a "first thus" at best and routinely offered as though it were the first. Within 1929 the volume of printing is the hazard: 20,000 copies sold in the first week and 30,000 by December, and Cape ran multiple impressions in November and December 1929, all in the same salmon cloth and all resembling the first. Because fewer than 100 copies escaped in the first state while the opening week alone sold 20,000, the expurgation was carried out during the original print run — meaning a first-impression copy is not necessarily a first-state copy, and only the text at p. 290 and pp. 341-343 settles it.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Good-bye to All That a first edition?

A first edition of Good-bye to All That by Robert Graves (Jonathan Cape) is identified by: Published 18 November 1929 by Jonathan Cape, London, the title styled on the title page as "GOOD-BYE TO ALL THAT" (hyphenated) above "An Autobiography" (Higginson & Williams A32).

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A stated first edition, a number line ending in 1, or a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the key. Jonathan Cape, London, 18 November 1929 is the true first and the edition collected; the census claim is confirmed.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

The real trap is not a book club but the 1957 revision: Graves substantially rewrote the book for Cassell (London) and Doubleday (New York) in 1957, and that rewritten text — the one in print ever since — is a different book from the 1929 original, a "first thus" at best and routinely offered as though it were the first. Within 1929 the volume of printing is the hazard: 20,000 copies sold in the first week and 30,000 by December, and Cape ran multiple impressions in November and December 1929, a

I have a first edition of Good-bye to All That — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.