# Is "Rogue Male" by Geoffrey Household a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household (Chatto & Windus, 1939) is identified by: First edition, first impression: publisher's purple cloth with spine lettered in silver, title page printed in red and black within a ruled border. True first is the UK Chatto & Windus edition, London, 1939.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, first impression: publisher's purple cloth with spine lettered in silver, title page printed in red and black within a ruled border
- Dealer descriptions of the cloth vary between purple and black — the purple dye is prone to fading and sunning, so spine color alone is not a reliable test
- The first-issue dust jacket (design by Enid Marx, showing the nameless narrator sighting a dictator through a rifle scope) is with its printed price at the flap and carries no second-impression notation on the front flap; second-impression copies retain the printed price but add the impression notice to the flap
- Jacketed true firsts are of legendary scarcity — experienced dealers report never having handled one
- Publisher imprint reads Chatto & Windus
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Geoffrey Household |
| Publisher | Chatto & Windus |
| Year | 1939 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, first impression: publisher's purple cloth with spine lettered in silver, title page printed in red and black within a ruled… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First edition, first impression: publisher's purple cloth with spine lettered in silver, title page printed in red and black within a ruled border. Dealer descriptions of the cloth vary between purple and black — the purple dye is prone to fading and sunning, so spine color alone is not a reliable test. The first-issue dust jacket (design by Enid Marx, showing the nameless narrator sighting a dictator through a rifle scope) is with its printed price at the flap and carries no second-impression notation on the front flap; second-impression copies retain the printed price but add the impression notice to the flap. Jacketed true firsts are of legendary scarcity — experienced dealers report never having handled one.

## Is this the true first?
True first is the UK Chatto & Windus edition, London, 1939. The first American edition followed the same year: Little, Brown and Company (an Atlantic Monthly Press book), Boston, 1939, in green cloth, 280 pages. Both are collected; the Chatto edition holds precedence. Wartime Services Library reissue wrappers on later Chatto impressions are a 'first thus' trap.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Second impression (also 1939) carries a second-impression notation on the jacket's front flap; later Chatto impressions appeared in blue boards and in red-white-and-blue Services Library wrappers.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Rogue Male* by Geoffrey Household a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/rogue-male
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.