# Is "The Apple Tree: A Short Novel and Several Long Stories" by Daphne du Maurier a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Apple Tree: A Short Novel and Several Long Stories by Daphne du Maurier (Victor Gollancz, London, 1952) is identified by: TITLE CORRECTION: the census records the subtitle as 'A Short Novel and Some Stories'; the Gollancz 1952 first is titled The Apple Tree: A Short Novel and Several Long Stories. The Gollancz, London, 1952 edition is the true first and contains the first appearance of 'The Birds' (source of Hitchcock's 1963 film).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- TITLE CORRECTION: the census records the subtitle as 'A Short Novel and Some Stories'; the Gollancz 1952 first is titled The Apple Tree: A Short Novel and Several Long Stories
- Gollancz first impressions of this period carry no printing statement — the point is negative and twofold: 1952 on the title page, and the reverse of the title page bearing only the copyright line 'Copyright 1952 Daphne du Maurier' with no reprint or later-impression statement
- Publisher's cloth in the Gollancz manner; pictorial dust jacket with cover art by Val Biro, priced at the flap in sterling with the price present and unclipped
- Contents: Monte Verita, The Birds, The Apple Tree, The Little Photographer, Kiss Me Again Stranger, The Old Man
- Offsetting to the endpapers and toning to the jacket spine are common and are not state points
- Publisher imprint reads Victor Gollancz, London
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Daphne du Maurier |
| Publisher | Victor Gollancz, London |
| Year | 1952 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | TITLE CORRECTION: the census records the subtitle as 'A Short Novel and Some Stories'; the Gollancz 1952 first is titled The Apple Tree: A… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
TITLE CORRECTION: the census records the subtitle as 'A Short Novel and Some Stories'; the Gollancz 1952 first is titled The Apple Tree: A Short Novel and Several Long Stories. Gollancz first impressions of this period carry no printing statement — the point is negative and twofold: 1952 on the title page, and the reverse of the title page bearing only the copyright line 'Copyright 1952 Daphne du Maurier' with no reprint or later-impression statement. Publisher's cloth in the Gollancz manner; pictorial dust jacket with cover art by Val Biro, priced at the flap in sterling with the price present and unclipped. Contents: Monte Verita, The Birds, The Apple Tree, The Little Photographer, Kiss Me Again Stranger, The Old Man. Offsetting to the endpapers and toning to the jacket spine are common and are not state points.

## Is this the true first?
The Gollancz, London, 1952 edition is the true first and contains the first appearance of 'The Birds' (source of Hitchcock's 1963 film). The census note that the US edition is a mere retitling is WRONG and needs correction: the American edition — Kiss Me Again, Stranger: A Collection of Eight Stories, Long and Short (New York: Doubleday, 1953, 319 pp., illustrations by Margot Tomes) — is an EXPANDED gathering, adding two stories not in the Gollancz volume, 'The Split Second' and 'No Motive'. Both editions are collected: the UK 1952 Gollancz is the true first of the book and of 'The Birds'; the US 1953 Doubleday is required for those two additional stories and is not a subordinate reprint. I did not independently confirm the Doubleday first-printing points, so no US printing points are asserted here.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented for the Gollancz 1952 first. The principal trap is 'first thus' retitling: the collection was later reissued as The Birds and Other Stories (Penguin, and subsequently Virago), which is a retitle of this same gathering and is not a first of anything. Later Gollancz impressions state the reprint on the reverse of the title page, so the absence of that statement is the test. The US Doubleday 1953 Kiss Me Again, Stranger is a different title and a different (expanded) gathering — not a book-club issue, and not to be confused with a reprint of the UK first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Apple Tree: A Short Novel and Several Long Stories* by Daphne du Maurier a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-apple-tree-a-short-novel-and-several-long-stories
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.