Is My Private Lives a First Edition?

The points of issue

• First edition, William Heinemann, London, 1930 — published within about a week of the London opening at the Phoenix Theatre on 24 September 1930 (the play had premiered earlier at the King's Theatre, Edinburgh, on 18 August 1930), and a week ahead of His Master's Voice's recordings of scenes performed by Coward and Gertrude Lawrence
• Bound in the publisher's original blue cloth with the spine lettered in gilt
• Peter Harrington additionally records a blind border to the covers and the publisher's device blind-stamped on the rear cover
• The dust jacket is printed in blue and is genuinely scarce — a priced jacket, with the price present at the front flap, is the state collectors want, and dealers consistently note that the English first is the scarcer of the two 1930 editions
• CAUTIONS: the dealer descriptions consulted report no printing statement or number line for the first impression, so there is no positive typographic point to rely on; and pagination is quoted inconsistently across catalogues (both 88 and 102 pages appear), so collation should not be used as a point without collating the copy in hand

How William Heinemann, London marked a first edition

• From the 1920s onward: "First published [Year]" or "First published in Great Britain [Year]" stated on the copyright page, with later impressions noted beneath
• First printing = statement present AND no list of subsequent impressions

Full William Heinemann, London first-edition guide →

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Confirm the first-edition statement — look for “First Edition,” “First Printing,” or the publisher’s equivalent wording.
3. Read the number line — the lowest number is the printing. A line including 1 is a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2). Paste it into the decoder.
4. Verify this is the UK true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
5. 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.
6. 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?

The census claim holds, on sequence: the UK edition is the true first — William Heinemann, London, 1930, published within a week of the London opening — while the American edition (Doubleday, Doran, Garden City, New York, 1930) was published for a Broadway production that did not open at the Times Square Theatre until 27 January 1931. Both are collected; dealers describe the Doubleday, Doran as the first American edition, and it too appeared in a priced jacket. Stated honestly: no source consulted asserts the UK/US precedence explicitly — it rests on the publication sequence above — so the American edition should always be catalogued as 'first American edition' and never as 'first edition', and the precedence should be presented as sequence-based rather than as a bibliographer's ruling.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club edition is documented. The commonest thing mistaken for a first is the Samuel French acting edition and its many reissues — an acting text, not an edition of record. Ex-lending-library copies (e.g. Boots Booklovers Library) circulate freely; library provenance is not an issue point but does account for the rebacked, relabelled and jacketless copies that dominate the low end of the market.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Private Lives a first edition?

A first edition of Private Lives by Noël Coward (William Heinemann, London) is identified by: First edition, William Heinemann, London, 1930 — published within about a week of the London opening at the Phoenix Theatre on 24 September 1930 (the play had premiered earlier at the King's Theatre, Edinburgh, on 18 August 1930), and a week ahead of His Master's Voice's recordings of scenes performed by Coward and Gertrude Lawrence.

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

Check the copyright page. A number line whose lowest number is 1 marks a first printing (Random House ends at 2). The census claim holds, on sequence: the UK edition is the true first — William Heinemann, London, 1930, published within a week of the London opening — while the American edition (Doubleday, Doran, Garden City, New York, 1930) was published for a Broadway production that did not open at the Times Square Theatre until 27 January 1931.

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

No book-club edition is documented. The commonest thing mistaken for a first is the Samuel French acting edition and its many reissues — an acting text, not an edition of record. Ex-lending-library copies (e.g. Boots Booklovers Library) circulate freely; library provenance is not an issue point but does account for the rebacked, relabelled and jacketless copies that dominate the low end of the market.

I have a first edition of Private Lives — 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.