# Is "John Silence — Physician Extraordinary" by Algernon Blackwood a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of John Silence — Physician Extraordinary by Algernon Blackwood (Eveleigh Nash, London, 1908) is identified by: First edition: London, Eveleigh Nash, 1908. The precedence claim is confirmed: the UK Eveleigh Nash edition of 1908 is the true first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition: London, Eveleigh Nash, 1908
- Octavo (approx
- 190 x 122 mm), [4]ff plus 390 pp., containing the five John Silence cases
- Bound in publisher's red (variously described by dealers as red, maroon or burgundy) cloth, titled in gilt on the spine and the front board, with a gilt swastika device stamped at the lower front corner — a period good-luck ornament, and the single most useful binding tell for the Nash first
- Copies are found with a 32-page publisher's advertising catalogue dated 'Spring 1908' bound in at the rear and copies are found without it; no priority has been established
- There is no edition or printing statement and no number line, so identification rests on the 1908 Nash title-page imprint plus the gilt-device binding and the 390-page collation
- Publisher imprint reads Eveleigh Nash, London

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Algernon Blackwood |
| Publisher | Eveleigh Nash, London |
| Year | 1908 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition: London, Eveleigh Nash, 1908 |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First edition: London, Eveleigh Nash, 1908. Octavo (approx. 190 x 122 mm), [4]ff plus 390 pp., containing the five John Silence cases. Bound in publisher's red (variously described by dealers as red, maroon or burgundy) cloth, titled in gilt on the spine and the front board, with a gilt swastika device stamped at the lower front corner — a period good-luck ornament, and the single most useful binding tell for the Nash first. Copies are found with a 32-page publisher's advertising catalogue dated 'Spring 1908' bound in at the rear and copies are found without it; no priority has been established. There is no edition or printing statement and no number line, so identification rests on the 1908 Nash title-page imprint plus the gilt-device binding and the 390-page collation.

## Is this the true first?
The precedence claim is confirmed: the UK Eveleigh Nash edition of 1908 is the true first. The first American edition followed from John W. Luce & Company, Boston, in 1909; it is separately collected as the first US but is subsequent to the London printing and is not the first edition. One caution on the census note: the 'promoted on London buses' detail could not be corroborated in any bibliographic or dealer source — an aggressive Nash advertising campaign is generally documented, but the specific bus-poster anecdote should not be published as fact and is not an identification point in any case.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No contemporary book-club issue is documented. The common reprint tells are the Luce Boston 1909 first American (Boston imprint on the title page, different collation), later Nash reissues from the same setting, and the widely circulated 1920s–1930s reprints; any copy lacking the gilt swastika device at the lower front corner of a red-cloth board should be treated as a later binding or reprint until the imprint is checked.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *John Silence — Physician Extraordinary* by Algernon Blackwood a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/john-silence-physician-extraordinary
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.