# Is "The Hill of Dreams" by Arthur Machen a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Hill of Dreams by Arthur Machen (E. Grant Richards, London, 1907) is identified by: The London Grant Richards issue is bound in brown buckram/cloth with gilt lettering to the spine and upper board, top edge gilt, white endpapers, and collates to 309 pages. The true first is the London edition: E.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The London Grant Richards issue is bound in brown buckram/cloth with gilt lettering to the spine and upper board, top edge gilt, white endpapers, and collates to 309 pages
- It carries a frontispiece by S. H. Sime, normally with its tissue guard present
- Dealers describing the first issue cite the absence of a publisher's catalogue at the rear and a list of the author's works running to page [311]; note that this point is not settled, as at least one dealer describes a copy with a 20-page advertising supplement dated 1907 bound in
- Treat the rear-advertisement question as open and verify the buckram, gilt, and Sime frontispiece points first
- Publisher imprint reads E. Grant Richards, London
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Arthur Machen |
| Publisher | E. Grant Richards, London |
| Year | 1907 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The London Grant Richards issue is bound in brown buckram/cloth with gilt lettering to the spine and upper board, top edge gilt, white… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The London Grant Richards issue is bound in brown buckram/cloth with gilt lettering to the spine and upper board, top edge gilt, white endpapers, and collates to 309 pages. It carries a frontispiece by S. H. Sime, normally with its tissue guard present. Dealers describing the first issue cite the absence of a publisher's catalogue at the rear and a list of the author's works running to page [311]; note that this point is not settled, as at least one dealer describes a copy with a 20-page advertising supplement dated 1907 bound in. Treat the rear-advertisement question as open and verify the buckram, gilt, and Sime frontispiece points first.

## Is this the true first?
The true first is the London edition: E. Grant Richards, 1907. Dana Estes & Company, Boston, issued the book in the United States in 1907 in red cloth, 309 pages, with the Sime frontispiece; sources consulted uniformly style the Estes a 'first American edition,' which places the Grant Richards ahead of it. The census hypothesis that the Estes issue was made up from imported English sheets is NOT documented in any source I could reach — the shared 309-page collation is consistent with shared sheets but is not proof, and this claim should not be published as fact.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue documented for the 1907 printings. The reprint traps are American: Albert & Charles Boni (1915), Frank Shay (1917), and the 1920s Alfred A. Knopf editions are all later reprints, not firsts. A 1915 account records that the Estes stock was exhausted and the book was reissued by a New York firm, so later US printings are common relative to the London first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Hill of Dreams* by Arthur Machen a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-hill-of-dreams
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.