# Is "The Borrowers" by Mary Norton a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Borrowers by Mary Norton (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1952) 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. UK true first confirmed: J.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- 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
- Publisher imprint reads J. M. Dent & Sons
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Mary Norton |
| Publisher | J. M. Dent & Sons |
| Year | 1952 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | First edition, first impression: 'First published 1952' stated on the copyright page with no later impression, reprint, or date line… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## 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.

## 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.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Borrowers* by Mary Norton a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-borrowers
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.