# Is "Orlando the Marmalade Cat: A Camping Holiday" by Kathleen Hale a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Orlando the Marmalade Cat: A Camping Holiday by Kathleen Hale (Country Life, 1938) is identified by: First published by Country Life, London, 1938 — the first title in the Orlando series, accepted by Noel Carrington. UK-only true first: Country Life, London, 1938.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First published by Country Life, London, 1938 — the first title in the Orlando series, accepted by Noel Carrington
- Very large folio format, approximately 14.25 x 10.5 inches, in pictorial paper boards illustrated in colour by Hale (green pictorial boards with a white spine) and patterned endpapers of a footprint design
- Contains a colour lithographed illustrated title page, frontispiece, and some 30 pages of text and brightly coloured lithographed illustrations
- No edition statement is present; the first issue carries the Country Life, London imprint alone, without the joint Transatlantic Arts / New York imprint found on later printings
- Note a common misattribution: Hale did not autolithograph this first title — she took over the colour separations and autolithography herself only from the second book onward, initially on zinc plates and post-war on Plastocowell sheets
- Publisher imprint reads Country Life
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Kathleen Hale |
| Publisher | Country Life |
| Year | 1938 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | First published by Country Life, London, 1938 — the first title in the Orlando series, accepted by Noel Carrington |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First published by Country Life, London, 1938 — the first title in the Orlando series, accepted by Noel Carrington. Very large folio format, approximately 14.25 x 10.5 inches, in pictorial paper boards illustrated in colour by Hale (green pictorial boards with a white spine) and patterned endpapers of a footprint design. Contains a colour lithographed illustrated title page, frontispiece, and some 30 pages of text and brightly coloured lithographed illustrations. No edition statement is present; the first issue carries the Country Life, London imprint alone, without the joint Transatlantic Arts / New York imprint found on later printings. Note a common misattribution: Hale did not autolithograph this first title — she took over the colour separations and autolithography herself only from the second book onward, initially on zinc plates and post-war on Plastocowell sheets.

## Is this the true first?
UK-only true first: Country Life, London, 1938. No simultaneous American edition was published, so there is no UK-vs-US precedence question here; the book reached New York only through later Country Life & Transatlantic Arts joint issues. Later Puffin and Frederick Warne reissues are "first thus" and carry no precedence.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Printings from the 1940s onward bear the joint Country Life & Transatlantic Arts imprint with London & New York on the title page — a reliable reprint tell; a documented 1948 third printing of the 1938 first is so imprinted and is found in a pictorial dust jacket. The 1938 first is routinely found without a wrapper. Later Warne facsimile and Puffin picture-book reissues are reprints.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Orlando the Marmalade Cat: A Camping Holiday* by Kathleen Hale a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/orlando-the-marmalade-cat-a-camping-holiday
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.