# Is "Miss Pym Disposes" by Josephine Tey a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey (Peter Davies, 1946) is identified by: CONFIRMED, WITH THE YEAR CORRECTED. UK precedes US, so the census claim's precedence is confirmed — but its year is corrected.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- CONFIRMED, WITH THE YEAR CORRECTED. The first edition is Peter Davies, London, and its copyright page states "First published 1946" — but the book was not actually issued until 1947, and two independent sources establish this
- The Library of Congress catalogues the Peter Davies edition as "London, P. Davies [1947]" carrying the explicit note: "First published 1946 [i.e
- 1947]"; the Classic Crime Fiction checklist independently records "Book dated 1946 but ECB says published date May 1947" (ECB = the English Catalogue of Books, the contemporary trade record)
- The practical consequence is that a copy stating "First published 1946" IS the correct first issue — the 1946 statement is a point, not a defect, and cataloguers who record the book as 1947 are describing the same edition, not a later one
- Classic Crime Fiction records the binding as purple cloth lettered in white/pink 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 Macmillan, New York, 1948 (copyright 1947) per the Library of Congress record "New York : Macmillan, 1948, c1947", and under the Macmillan (US) convention from mid-1936 states "First printing" on the copyright page
- Publisher imprint reads Peter Davies

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Josephine Tey |
| Publisher | Peter Davies |
| Year | 1946 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | CONFIRMED, WITH THE YEAR CORRECTED. The first edition is Peter Davies, London, and its copyright page states "First published 1946" — but… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
CONFIRMED, WITH THE YEAR CORRECTED. The first edition is Peter Davies, London, and its copyright page states "First published 1946" — but the book was not actually issued until 1947, and two independent sources establish this. The Library of Congress catalogues the Peter Davies edition as "London, P. Davies [1947]" carrying the explicit note: "First published 1946 [i.e. 1947]"; the Classic Crime Fiction checklist independently records "Book dated 1946 but ECB says published date May 1947" (ECB = the English Catalogue of Books, the contemporary trade record). The practical consequence is that a copy stating "First published 1946" IS the correct first issue — the 1946 statement is a point, not a defect, and cataloguers who record the book as 1947 are describing the same edition, not a later one. Classic Crime Fiction records the binding as purple cloth lettered in white/pink 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 Macmillan, New York, 1948 (copyright 1947) per the Library of Congress record "New York : Macmillan, 1948, c1947", and under the Macmillan (US) convention from mid-1936 states "First printing" on the copyright page.

## Is this the true first?
UK precedes US, so the census claim's precedence is confirmed — but its year is corrected. The true first is Peter Davies, London, stated 1946 and actually issued May 1947; the first American edition is Macmillan, New York, 1948 (copyright 1947). Both are collected — name both. The stated-1946 / issued-1947 split is the single most useful fact about this book: it is one edition, not two, and neither year alone describes it accurately. The Macmillan "Three by Tey" omnibus (New York, 1954), the R. Bentley (1981) issue reprinted from that omnibus, and Collier Books (1988, c1948) are all reprints and first-thus traps.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue points specific to this title are documented in the sources consulted. Check the general tells: an unpriced jacket flap or "Book Club Edition" printed at the flap, a blind stamp debossed into the rear board near the spine, and reduced bulk against the trade issue. Because the copyright page of a genuine first carries a 1946 statement, later omnibus- and reprint-derived issues (Macmillan 1954 omnibus, Bentley 1981, Collier 1988) are told apart by their own imprint and dating rather than by the 1946 line.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Miss Pym Disposes* by Josephine Tey a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/miss-pym-disposes
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.