# Is "The Devil Rides Out" by Dennis Wheatley a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Devil Rides Out by Dennis Wheatley (Hutchinson & Co., London, 1934) is identified by: Hutchinson published the first edition in London in December 1934 (the text had been serialised in abridged form in the Daily Mail from 31 October to 22 December that year). The Hutchinson London edition of December 1934 is the true first everywhere and the only collected first state.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Hutchinson published the first edition in London in December 1934 (the text had been serialised in abridged form in the Daily Mail from 31 October to 22 December that year)
- The title page is undated, so genuine firsts are catalogued "[1934]" — and the decisive point is that the first printing carries no "Thousand" statement
- Hutchinson added a Thousand designation to every reprint (10th Thousand and 15th Thousand both circa 1935, later the printed pricet, 29th, 49th, 136th and 147th Thousand issues), so any Thousand statement rules a copy out
- Collation is 329 pages plus five pages of advertising and a forty-page Hutchinson catalogue dated Spring 1935 bound at the rear; some copies omit the catalogue, and a recorded variant has page 329 — the leaf on which Wheatley invites readers' opinions of this type of story — excised
- Bound in red cloth lettered in black, printed by The Gainsborough Press, with illustrated endpapers designed by Diana Younger together with Joan and Dennis Wheatley; the pictorial dust wrapper is also Diana Younger's work and should be present with the price at the spine
- Crown 8vo
- Publisher imprint reads Hutchinson & Co., London

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Dennis Wheatley |
| Publisher | Hutchinson & Co., London |
| Year | 1934 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Hutchinson published the first edition in London in December 1934 (the text had been serialised in abridged form in the Daily Mail from 31… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Hutchinson published the first edition in London in December 1934 (the text had been serialised in abridged form in the Daily Mail from 31 October to 22 December that year). The title page is undated, so genuine firsts are catalogued "[1934]" — and the decisive point is that the first printing carries no "Thousand" statement. Hutchinson added a Thousand designation to every reprint (10th Thousand and 15th Thousand both circa 1935, later the printed pricet, 29th, 49th, 136th and 147th Thousand issues), so any Thousand statement rules a copy out. Collation is 329 pages plus five pages of advertising and a forty-page Hutchinson catalogue dated Spring 1935 bound at the rear; some copies omit the catalogue, and a recorded variant has page 329 — the leaf on which Wheatley invites readers' opinions of this type of story — excised. Bound in red cloth lettered in black, printed by The Gainsborough Press, with illustrated endpapers designed by Diana Younger together with Joan and Dennis Wheatley; the pictorial dust wrapper is also Diana Younger's work and should be present with the price at the spine. Crown 8vo. Some copies were issued with a wrap-around publicity band.

## Is this the true first?
The Hutchinson London edition of December 1934 is the true first everywhere and the only collected first state. No contemporary American edition was published — the novel did not reach the United States until paperback issues decades later — so there is no UK-versus-US precedence question for this title, unlike most of Wheatley's contemporaries.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented in the sources consulted. The working reprint tell is the Hutchinson "Thousand" statement; note that reprint dust wrappers closely resemble the first-edition wrapper (one dealer cataloguing a 10th Thousand explicitly notes its wrapper "is similar to the printed pricet edition"), so the wrapper alone proves nothing — confirm the absence of a Thousand designation. Later cheap editions are reset at a reduced published price and list titles Wheatley wrote after 1934 in the rear advertisements.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Devil Rides Out* by Dennis Wheatley a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-devil-rides-out
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.