Is My The Hounds of Tindalos a First Edition?

The points of issue

• Arkham House, Sauk City, 1946
• 2,602 copies printed
• No printing statement is present — Arkham House firsts of this period carry none, so identification rests on the title leaf, date, and physical points
• Octavo, 316 pp., bound in black cloth with gilt decoration and lettering to the spine
• Twenty-one stories — Long's first collection of weird fiction, drawn largely from Weird Tales, Unknown Worlds and other pulps published between 1924 and 1944
• Dust jacket art by Hannes Bok; a first-issue jacket is unclipped with the price present at the flap

How to confirm the first-printing statement

Publishers stated first printings differently by era. The decisive tells are a printed “First Edition/First Printing” statement, a number line whose lowest number is 1 (Random House ends at 2), or a dated first printing with no later printings listed. Paste your copyright page into the number-line decoder.

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Check for a number line or dated printing — the lowest number present is the printing; a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the tell.
3. Verify this is the American true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
4. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
5. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

The true-first claim is CONFIRMED: Arkham House (Sauk City, 1946) is the first edition, an American original. The census precedence note is CORRECTED, however: the UK Museum Press edition (London, 1950, 352 pp., jacket art attributed — disputedly — to Mervyn Peake, with the attribution contested between a Peake commission and a commercial artist copying his 1943 'Life-in-Death') is the first British edition, and it is NOT documented as an abridgment. Sources conflict on its contents (one dealer describes sixteen stories; reprint-history accounts treat the Arkham and Museum Press texts as the complete ones), so the 'abridgment' label should not be relied on and is not asserted here. The genuinely documented abridgments are the Belmont paperbacks 'The Hounds of Tindalos' (1963) and 'The Dark Beasts' (1964), which between them omit three stories.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No contemporary book-club issue is documented. The reprint traps are the paperbacks: Belmont's two-volume split (1963/1964) omits three of the twenty-one stories, and later reissues have carried as few as nine to eleven of the original stories. Panther Books issued a complete two-volume British paperback as 'The Hounds of Tindalos' (1975) and 'The Black Druid' (1975). All carry their own imprints and are readily distinguished from the Arkham House hardcover.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of The Hounds of Tindalos a first edition?

A first edition of The Hounds of Tindalos by Frank Belknap Long (Arkham House, Sauk City) is identified by: Arkham House, Sauk City, 1946; 2,602 copies printed.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A stated first edition, a number line ending in 1, or a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the key. The true-first claim is CONFIRMED: Arkham House (Sauk City, 1946) is the first edition, an American original.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

No contemporary book-club issue is documented. The reprint traps are the paperbacks: Belmont's two-volume split (1963/1964) omits three of the twenty-one stories, and later reissues have carried as few as nine to eleven of the original stories. Panther Books issued a complete two-volume British paperback as 'The Hounds of Tindalos' (1975) and 'The Black Druid' (1975). All carry their own imprints and are readily distinguished from the Arkham House hardcover.

I have a first edition of The Hounds of Tindalos — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.