# Is "The Circular Staircase" by Mary Roberts Rinehart a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart (The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1908) is identified by: The decisive point is the copyright page: the first printing carries "September" together with 1908, reading "COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY" — Bobbs-Merrill's early practice was to show a month only on the copyright page of a first, and a copy without the month statement is a later printing. US precedes UK: The Bobbs-Merrill Company (Indianapolis) 1908 is the true first, and precedence is not in doubt — Rinehart was American and the novel ran first as a serial in All-Story across five issues beginning November 1907, before book publication.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The decisive point is the copyright page: the first printing carries "September" together with 1908, reading "COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY" — Bobbs-Merrill's early practice was to show a month only on the copyright page of a first, and a copy without the month statement is a later printing
- Bobbs-Merrill also sometimes used a bow-and-arrow device on the copyright page of pre-1920s firsts, but applied it inconsistently, so its absence alone does not disqualify a copy and its presence alone does not confirm one
- The first is 8vo, 362pp, in publisher's olive / olive-green cloth, pictorially stamped on the spine and upper board — dealers vary on the lettering, described as titles in red with illustrations in black by some and as stamping in black and orange by James Cummins — with a colour frontispiece and six further plates by Lester Ralph
- The author's first book and a Haycraft-Queen cornerstone
- Publisher imprint reads The Bobbs-Merrill Company
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Mary Roberts Rinehart |
| Publisher | The Bobbs-Merrill Company |
| Year | 1908 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The decisive point is the copyright page: the first printing carries "September" together with 1908, reading "COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY THE… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
The decisive point is the copyright page: the first printing carries "September" together with 1908, reading "COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY" — Bobbs-Merrill's early practice was to show a month only on the copyright page of a first, and a copy without the month statement is a later printing. Bobbs-Merrill also sometimes used a bow-and-arrow device on the copyright page of pre-1920s firsts, but applied it inconsistently, so its absence alone does not disqualify a copy and its presence alone does not confirm one. The first is 8vo, 362pp, in publisher's olive / olive-green cloth, pictorially stamped on the spine and upper board — dealers vary on the lettering, described as titles in red with illustrations in black by some and as stamping in black and orange by James Cummins — with a colour frontispiece and six further plates by Lester Ralph. The author's first book and a Haycraft-Queen cornerstone.

## Is this the true first?
US precedes UK: The Bobbs-Merrill Company (Indianapolis) 1908 is the true first, and precedence is not in doubt — Rinehart was American and the novel ran first as a serial in All-Story across five issues beginning November 1907, before book publication. The census's "UK Cassell 1909" could not be corroborated in any source consulted; the English edition followed the American, but treat the English publisher and date as unconfirmed rather than repeating Cassell 1909 as established.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The standing trap is the Grosset & Dunlap (New York) reprint, issued by arrangement and retaining the Bobbs-Merrill copyright notice, which misleads buyers who read only the copyright line — the tell is the Grosset & Dunlap imprint on the title page, and some G&D issues carry a pictorial paste-down to the front cover after Lester Ralph. One recorded G&D issue is "by arrangement with Farrar & Rinehart, Inc.," a firm not founded until 1929, so that copy cannot predate 1929 whatever the copyright page says. Any copy lacking "September" with 1908 on the copyright page is a later printing.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Circular Staircase* by Mary Roberts Rinehart a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-circular-staircase
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.