Is My The Borrowers a First Edition?

The points of issue

• First edition, first impression: 'First published 1952' stated on the copyright page with no later impression, reprint, or date line beneath it
• 8vo (about 205 x 150 mm), 159 pp
• Publisher's light blue cloth with red lettering to the spine and a red design to both spine and upper cover; pictorial (illustrated) endpapers
• Frontispiece and line illustrations by Diana Stanley, who also drew the pictorial dust wrapper
• The wrapper on a first is priced at the flap, unclipped, and dealers cite the first-issue jacket as a distinct point; a price-clipped wrapper cannot be placed on it, so the copyright-page statement and the binding/endpaper description carry the identification

How to confirm the first-printing statement

Publishers stated first printings differently by era. The decisive tells are a printed “First Edition/First Printing” statement, a number line whose lowest number is 1 (Random House ends at 2), or a dated first printing with no later printings listed. Paste your copyright page into the number-line decoder.

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. Check for a number line or dated printing — the lowest number present is the printing; a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the tell.
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?

UK true first confirmed: J. M. Dent & Sons, London, 1952 — the census claim stands, and it won the 1952 Carnegie Medal. The first American edition (Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York, 1953) is separately collected and is a physically different book rather than a reprint of the Dent sheets: it substitutes new illustrations by Beth and Joe Krush (3 double-page, 10 full-page, and numerous smaller drawings), collates [viii]+180 pp., and is bound in light blue cloth pictorially stamped in black. London 1952 has precedence; the Krush-illustrated Harcourt is the edition most American readers know and is the one usually mis-sold as 'the first'.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

Harcourt, Brace did not state first printings in this era (their practice from 1921 to about 1960), so the American edition must be worked from the code line: later Harcourt printings carry a letter-and-date code beneath the copyright notice — a copy showing 'J.2.60', for example, is a 1960 printing and not the 1953 first — and that code line is the check to make. On the Dent side, later impressions are stated on the copyright page beneath the 'First published 1952' line; a Dent copy dated 1952 with a stated second impression is not a first. No named book-club issue of either edition is documented in the sources consulted.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of The Borrowers a first edition?

A first edition of The Borrowers by Mary Norton (J. M. Dent & Sons) is identified by: First edition, first impression: 'First published 1952' stated on the copyright page with no later impression, reprint, or date line beneath it.

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

Check the copyright page. A stated first edition, a number line ending in 1, or a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the key. UK true first confirmed: J.

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

Harcourt, Brace did not state first printings in this era (their practice from 1921 to about 1960), so the American edition must be worked from the code line: later Harcourt printings carry a letter-and-date code beneath the copyright notice — a copy showing 'J.2.60', for example, is a 1960 printing and not the 1953 first — and that code line is the check to make. On the Dent side, later impressions are stated on the copyright page beneath the 'First published 1952' line; a Dent copy dated 1952

I have a first edition of The Borrowers — 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.