# Is "The House Without a Key" by Earl Derr Biggers a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The House Without a Key by Earl Derr Biggers (The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1925) is identified by: The first edition, first printing is identified by an ABSENCE: there is no bow-and-arrow colophon on the copyright page. Sole true first: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis, 1925 — the census claim is confirmed.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The first edition, first printing is identified by an ABSENCE: there is no bow-and-arrow colophon on the copyright page
- Bobbs-Merrill's practice in this period was inconsistent — through the 1920s the house marked firsts sometimes with the bow-and-arrow device, sometimes with the words 'First Edition', and sometimes with no statement at all — so this is a title-specific point rather than a house rule, and it should be checked against the rest of the collation rather than relied on alone
- Collation is [iv], 316 pages
- Binding is publisher's light brown (almost orange) cloth stamped in dark green; dealer descriptions are not unanimous on the lettering colour, with at least one ABAA house cataloguing the cloth as orange with dark navy lettering, so allow for variance in how the stamping is described
- The dust jacket carries the Art Deco design of Waikiki Beach with the house at which the murder occurs and Diamond Head behind, and is rarely present
- Publisher imprint reads The Bobbs-Merrill Company
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Earl Derr Biggers |
| Publisher | The Bobbs-Merrill Company |
| Year | 1925 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The first edition, first printing is identified by an ABSENCE: there is no bow-and-arrow colophon on the copyright page |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
The first edition, first printing is identified by an ABSENCE: there is no bow-and-arrow colophon on the copyright page. Bobbs-Merrill's practice in this period was inconsistent — through the 1920s the house marked firsts sometimes with the bow-and-arrow device, sometimes with the words 'First Edition', and sometimes with no statement at all — so this is a title-specific point rather than a house rule, and it should be checked against the rest of the collation rather than relied on alone. Collation is [iv], 316 pages. Binding is publisher's light brown (almost orange) cloth stamped in dark green; dealer descriptions are not unanimous on the lettering colour, with at least one ABAA house cataloguing the cloth as orange with dark navy lettering, so allow for variance in how the stamping is described. The dust jacket carries the Art Deco design of Waikiki Beach with the house at which the murder occurs and Diamond Head behind, and is rarely present.

## Is this the true first?
Sole true first: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis, 1925 — the census claim is confirmed. There is no competing UK or original-language claimant with precedence, and this is the first appearance of Charlie Chan. Later British issues and every subsequent edition are reprints of the American text.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Grosset & Dunlap reprints dated 1925 are the standard trap and circulate widely — they carry the Grosset & Dunlap imprint at the foot of the title page and/or on the spine even where the Bobbs-Merrill copyright notice is retained on the verso, so always check the title-page imprint and not just the copyright page. A later Franklin Library edition also exists and is a reprint. Later Bobbs-Merrill printings can be separated from the first by the presence of the bow-and-arrow colophon on the copyright page.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The House Without a Key* by Earl Derr Biggers a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-house-without-a-key
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.