# Is "The "Canary" Murder Case" by S. S. Van Dine (Willard Huntington Wright) a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The "Canary" Murder Case by S. S. Van Dine (Willard Huntington Wright) (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1927) is identified by: Scribner's pre-1930 practice governs this book: until 1930 the Scribner seal (the publisher's device/colophon) and the date of publication generally appear on the copyright page of first editions, with subsequent printings noted — a rule the ILAB and Quill & Brush (qbbooks) tables state independently. US Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1927 is the first edition (Wikipedia's infobox gives Scribner's / 1927 / United States; an ABAA dealer catalogues the Scribner first printing).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Scribner's pre-1930 practice governs this book: until 1930 the Scribner seal (the publisher's device/colophon) and the date of publication generally appear on the copyright page of first editions, with subsequent printings noted — a rule the ILAB and Quill & Brush (qbbooks) tables state independently
- CRITICAL TRAP: the famous Scribner capital "A" on the copyright page begins only in 1930
- Its absence from a 1927 Canary is normal and is NOT evidence of a later printing; anyone applying the "A" test to this title will misidentify a genuine first
- Reported by an ABAA dealer describing the first printing: publisher's black cloth stamped in green, plain endpapers, octavo (about 19.5cm), collating [ii], [xii], 343, [3] pages, with a one-page publisher's advertisement at the rear and a list of titles at the front
- The title is styled with "Canary" in quotation marks on the title page
- Jacket: identification only — a priced jacket, with the price present at the flap
- Publisher imprint reads Charles Scribner's Sons

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | S. S. Van Dine (Willard Huntington Wright) |
| Publisher | Charles Scribner's Sons |
| Year | 1927 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Scribner's pre-1930 practice governs this book: until 1930 the Scribner seal (the publisher's device/colophon) and the date of publication… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
Scribner's pre-1930 practice governs this book: until 1930 the Scribner seal (the publisher's device/colophon) and the date of publication generally appear on the copyright page of first editions, with subsequent printings noted — a rule the ILAB and Quill & Brush (qbbooks) tables state independently. CRITICAL TRAP: the famous Scribner capital "A" on the copyright page begins only in 1930. Its absence from a 1927 Canary is normal and is NOT evidence of a later printing; anyone applying the "A" test to this title will misidentify a genuine first. Reported by an ABAA dealer describing the first printing: publisher's black cloth stamped in green, plain endpapers, octavo (about 19.5cm), collating [ii], [xii], 343, [3] pages, with a one-page publisher's advertisement at the rear and a list of titles at the front. The title is styled with "Canary" in quotation marks on the title page. Jacket: identification only — a priced jacket, with the price present at the flap.

## Is this the true first?
US Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1927 is the first edition (Wikipedia's infobox gives Scribner's / 1927 / United States; an ABAA dealer catalogues the Scribner first printing). A UK edition was published by Ernest Benn Ltd., London, 1927 — confirmed by a dealer listing, and Benn is corroborated as Van Dine's early UK publisher by a Benn first edition of The Benson Murder Case, 1926. British Van Dine editions are scarce. The census's claim that Scribner's precedes Benn is the expected sequence for a US author but was not documented in any source consulted; treat the direction as probable rather than established. Second Philo Vance novel.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Grosset & Dunlap issued reprints of this title; a Grosset & Dunlap copy carries the Grosset imprint on the title page and spine rather than Scribner's and is not the first. On a Scribner copy, a later printing noted on the copyright page is the operative reprint tell.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The "Canary" Murder Case* by S. S. Van Dine (Willard Huntington Wright) a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-canary-murder-case
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.