# Is "The French Powder Mystery" by Ellery Queen a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The French Powder Mystery by Ellery Queen (Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1930) is identified by: Stokes issue, New York, 1930: original red cloth, spine lettered and the outline of a bookend stamped in black, front board lettered in relief on a black bookend design, top edge stained red. US precedes.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The Frederick A. Stokes issue, New York, 1930: original red cloth, spine lettered and the outline of a bookend stamped in black, front board lettered in relief on a black bookend design, top edge stained red
- The copyright page reads 1930 and the title page carries the date in roman as MCMXXX. Collates xvi plus 316 pages with plans, 20 cm (Library of Congress, LCCN 30018208)
- Stokes used no 'First published' statement until the 1940s, so a 1930 Stokes first printing is identified by the ABSENCE of any later-printing or later-edition line on the copyright page — there is no number line and no printing code to read
- Jacket point, and the decisive one: the first-printing jacket is a priced jacket with the price present at the flap and does NOT carry 'second printing' along the lower edge of the front panel, and does NOT carry the line 'by the author of THE ROMAN HAT MYSTERY' at the top of the front panel
- A jacket bearing either of those is a second-printing jacket on a book otherwise identical
- Publisher imprint reads Frederick A. Stokes Company
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Ellery Queen |
| Publisher | Frederick A. Stokes Company |
| Year | 1930 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The Frederick A. Stokes issue, New York, 1930: original red cloth, spine lettered and the outline of a bookend stamped in black, front… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
The Frederick A. Stokes issue, New York, 1930: original red cloth, spine lettered and the outline of a bookend stamped in black, front board lettered in relief on a black bookend design, top edge stained red. The copyright page reads 1930 and the title page carries the date in roman as MCMXXX. Collates xvi plus 316 pages with plans, 20 cm (Library of Congress, LCCN 30018208). Stokes used no 'First published' statement until the 1940s, so a 1930 Stokes first printing is identified by the ABSENCE of any later-printing or later-edition line on the copyright page — there is no number line and no printing code to read. Jacket point, and the decisive one: the first-printing jacket is a priced jacket with the price present at the flap and does NOT carry 'second printing' along the lower edge of the front panel, and does NOT carry the line 'by the author of THE ROMAN HAT MYSTERY' at the top of the front panel. A jacket bearing either of those is a second-printing jacket on a book otherwise identical.

## Is this the true first?
US precedes. Stokes, New York 1930 is the true first; the Victor Gollancz issue, London 1930 — black cloth lettered in red, carrying the full subtitle 'A Problem in Deduction', 319 pages — is the first UK edition and is collected as such, dealers describing it as 'first UK edition' rather than the first. Ellery Queen was the joint pseudonym of the American cousins Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee, and Stokes was the originating publisher. Census claim confirmed as to the true first. Month-level dating of the Gollancz was not established, but no source consulted places it ahead of the Stokes.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Triangle Books issued a New York reprint in 1941 from the same xvi + 316 page setting as the Stokes first but in a smaller 19 cm format (Library of Congress, LCCN 42010941) — a Triangle imprint is always a reprint and is the commonest copy mistaken for the first. Later reprints include Otto Penzler Books (1995, LCCN 94030952). A jacket with 'second printing' at the lower front panel, or a copyright page carrying any later-printing line, rules a copy out.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The French Powder Mystery* by Ellery Queen a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-french-powder-mystery
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.