# Is "Stormbringer" by Michael Moorcock a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Stormbringer by Michael Moorcock (Herbert Jenkins, 1965) is identified by: Herbert Jenkins, London, 1965. Publisher and year confirmed — Herbert Jenkins, London 1965 is the true first, it precedes the American Lancer, and the UK hardcover is the key Elric collectible.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Herbert Jenkins, London, 1965
- Octavo, 192pp, bound in red boards lettered in white on the spine, jacket art by James Cawthorn; on an unclipped example the price is present at the jacket flap
- No ISBN. The 192-page collation is itself diagnostic: the restored text first published by DAW in 1977 runs to 220pp, so any copy collating to 220pp is the later restored text and not this book
- The 1965 sheets present the material as a fix-up of four Science Fantasy novellas with the first two (plus part of the third) condensed into a single section headed 'The Coming of Chaos' — that section heading is a first-edition text feature, an artefact of the abridgment described below
- Publisher imprint reads Herbert Jenkins
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Michael Moorcock |
| Publisher | Herbert Jenkins |
| Year | 1965 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Herbert Jenkins, London, 1965 |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
Herbert Jenkins, London, 1965. Octavo, 192pp, bound in red boards lettered in white on the spine, jacket art by James Cawthorn; on an unclipped example the price is present at the jacket flap. No ISBN. The 192-page collation is itself diagnostic: the restored text first published by DAW in 1977 runs to 220pp, so any copy collating to 220pp is the later restored text and not this book. The 1965 sheets present the material as a fix-up of four Science Fantasy novellas with the first two (plus part of the third) condensed into a single section headed 'The Coming of Chaos' — that section heading is a first-edition text feature, an artefact of the abridgment described below.

## Is this the true first?
Publisher and year confirmed — Herbert Jenkins, London 1965 is the true first, it precedes the American Lancer, and the UK hardcover is the key Elric collectible. BUT THE CENSUS PRECEDENCE NOTE IS REFUTED AND CORRECTED HERE: the abridgment is in the Herbert Jenkins first edition itself, not in the Lancer. The 1965 book form was published 'abridged and revised', with roughly a quarter of the Science Fantasy serial text cut — mostly from the second and third novellas — and new bridging material added to hold the remainder together. The Lancer 1967 (US, 190pp, Jack Gaughan cover) simply reprints that abridged text; it is a paperback reprint, not, as the census claims, a paperback original, and it is not the source of the abridgment. The full-length text was first published in any country by DAW in 1977 (220pp, Michael Whelan cover, interior illustrations by James Cawthorn, described as the first restored edition) — that is a textual first, not the edition first, and it does not displace Herbert Jenkins 1965.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
'First thus' traps are unusually thick on this title and none is the first edition: Lancer 1967 and September 1973 (US paperbacks), Mayflower December 1968 (UK paperback, 189pp, Bob Haberfield cover, reprinted 1969), and the DAW 1977 restored edition — which, despite carrying the fullest text published to that date and being widely described as definitive, is a reprint of the title. Later Granada, Berkley, Ace (1987, Robert Gould cover) and Centipede Press (2022 limited hardcover) issues are likewise reprints. No book-club edition is documented in the sources consulted.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Stormbringer* by Michael Moorcock a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/stormbringer
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.