# Is "The Jewel of Seven Stars" by Bram Stoker a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Jewel of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker (William Heinemann, London, 1903) is identified by: London, William Heinemann, 1903: 337 pages, original red cloth, front and spine panels stamped in blind and gold, with dealer descriptions consistently noting gilt star decoration on the front cover. UK first and true first: William Heinemann, London, 1903, 337 pp.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- London, William Heinemann, 1903: 337 pages, original red cloth, front and spine panels stamped in blind and gold, with dealer descriptions consistently noting gilt star decoration on the front cover
- The decisive point is TEXTUAL rather than typographic — the first edition contains Chapter XVI, 'Powers — Old and New,' and Stoker's original grim ending, in which the resurrection experiment fails and Margaret and Malcolm's companions all die; the passage 'Margaret had put her hands before her face, but the glassy stare of her eyes through her fingers was more terrible than an open glare' belongs to that ending
- Any copy lacking Chapter XVI, or ending with Queen Tera dead and Margaret and Malcolm marrying, carries the revised text and cannot be the 1903 first
- Collate for Chapter XVI before examining anything else
- No number line or printing code is present; this is a 1903 English trade novel
- Publisher imprint reads William Heinemann, London
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Bram Stoker |
| Publisher | William Heinemann, London |
| Year | 1903 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | London, William Heinemann, 1903: 337 pages, original red cloth, front and spine panels stamped in blind and gold, with dealer descriptions… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
London, William Heinemann, 1903: 337 pages, original red cloth, front and spine panels stamped in blind and gold, with dealer descriptions consistently noting gilt star decoration on the front cover. The decisive point is TEXTUAL rather than typographic — the first edition contains Chapter XVI, 'Powers — Old and New,' and Stoker's original grim ending, in which the resurrection experiment fails and Margaret and Malcolm's companions all die; the passage 'Margaret had put her hands before her face, but the glassy stare of her eyes through her fingers was more terrible than an open glare' belongs to that ending. Any copy lacking Chapter XVI, or ending with Queen Tera dead and Margaret and Malcolm marrying, carries the revised text and cannot be the 1903 first. Collate for Chapter XVI before examining anything else. No number line or printing code is present; this is a 1903 English trade novel.

## Is this the true first?
UK first and true first: William Heinemann, London, 1903, 337 pp. — census claim confirmed, and it carries the original ending. US first: Harper & Brothers, New York and London, 1904, in dark blue cloth stamped on spine and front panel in light green and silver (silver stars, green-lettered title), with 'Published February, 1904' on the copyright page; sources give the pagination variously as 310 or 311 pp. The census claim that the Harper 1904 retains the original ending is confirmed — necessarily so, since the revision post-dates it by eight years — and it likewise retains Chapter XVI; both editions are collected. Prepublication issues toward a US edition were deposited for copyright by Doubleday, Page & Company in December 1902 and January 1903, but Doubleday never published it, and Harper 1904 is the US first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The chief later-issue trap is the abridged reissue: William Rider & Son, London, 1912, 307 pp., which deletes Chapter XVI and substitutes the happy ending. It is a 'first thus' at best, and it is the text most modern reprints — and the Project Gutenberg file — carry; it is unclear whether Stoker himself made the changes. The excised chapter was later printed separately as 'The Bridal of Death' in a 1990 collection, and modern editions advertising 'both endings' are of course reprints. No book-club issue is documented for the 1903 Heinemann edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Jewel of Seven Stars* by Bram Stoker a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-jewel-of-seven-stars
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.