# Is "The Beast Must Die" by Nicholas Blake (Cecil Day-Lewis) a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Beast Must Die by Nicholas Blake (Cecil Day-Lewis) (Collins, The Crime Club, 1938) is identified by: Collins / Crime Club house practice is the primary test: no statement appears on the first edition, and subsequent printings are noted either by a printing statement or by a date later than the copyright date — so a copyright page bearing 1938 with no reprint notice is correct for the first. UK precedes US, though both editions are dated 1938 and both are collected.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Collins / Crime Club house practice is the primary test: no statement appears on the first edition, and subsequent printings are noted either by a printing statement or by a date later than the copyright date — so a copyright page bearing 1938 with no reprint notice is correct for the first
- The first edition, first impression is bound in publisher's orange cloth with black titles to the spine (Shapero), and the jacket is a priced jacket, with the price present at the spine — price-clipped copies cannot be confirmed by that point
- A Haycraft-Queen cornerstone and a Nigel Strangeways title; cited at Keating #26 and Hatchards #81
- Copies of the UK printing in the jacket are documented as extremely uncommon
- Publisher imprint reads Collins, The Crime Club
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Nicholas Blake (Cecil Day-Lewis) |
| Publisher | Collins, The Crime Club |
| Year | 1938 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Collins / Crime Club house practice is the primary test: no statement appears on the first edition, and subsequent printings are noted… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Collins / Crime Club house practice is the primary test: no statement appears on the first edition, and subsequent printings are noted either by a printing statement or by a date later than the copyright date — so a copyright page bearing 1938 with no reprint notice is correct for the first. The first edition, first impression is bound in publisher's orange cloth with black titles to the spine (Shapero), and the jacket is a priced jacket, with the price present at the spine — price-clipped copies cannot be confirmed by that point. A Haycraft-Queen cornerstone and a Nigel Strangeways title; cited at Keating #26 and Hatchards #81. Copies of the UK printing in the jacket are documented as extremely uncommon.

## Is this the true first?
UK precedes US, though both editions are dated 1938 and both are collected. Collins, The Crime Club (London) 1938 is the true first — Blake's UK publisher — and Harper & Brothers (New York) 1938 is the first American edition, bound in publisher's yellow cloth-covered boards; dealers catalogue the Harper as "First American Edition," which is consistent with UK precedence rather than simultaneous issue. Because the two share a year, verify the imprint on the title page rather than the date.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No title-specific book-club issue is documented in the sources consulted for either the Collins or the Harper. General tells for a US mystery of this period still apply to the Harper: a blindstamp impressed on the rear board near the spine, a "Book Club Edition" notation on the jacket flap, or a jacket lacking a price.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Beast Must Die* by Nicholas Blake (Cecil Day-Lewis) a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-beast-must-die
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.