Is My The Lair of the White Worm a First Edition?

The points of issue

• William Rider and Son, Limited, London, 1911: octavo (approx
• 19 x 13 cm), original bright red cloth, the front panel stamped in blind and the spine panel stamped in gold and blind, with six inserted colour plates by Pamela Colman Smith (designer of the Rider–Waite tarot), the frontispiece with tissue guard; pp. viii, 324, followed by advertisement leaves and a publisher's catalogue
• The decisive point is textual completeness: the 1911 first prints the full 40-chapter text. bramstoker.org, Wikipedia and multiple dealers (Lycanthia Books, Richard Dalby's Library) agree independently on the red cloth, the blind-and-gilt stamping, the six Colman Smith plates and the 324-page collation
• Later editions almost universally lack the plates, so a plate-less copy is a reprint — but plates are also commonly extracted from genuine firsts, so look for stubs rather than assuming
• One dealer observes that bulkier copies may represent an earlier part of the print run; that is an impression, not an established point, and should not be relied on

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 UK 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?

UK Rider 1911 is the true first and the only first — there was no simultaneous or near-simultaneous American edition. The novel was not published in the United States until 1966, when Paperback Library (New York) issued it in its Gothic series retitled The Garden of Evil, a mass-market paperback with cover art by Victor Kalin. That is the first American appearance, but it is a paperback reprint of a 55-year-old text and not a first edition in any collecting sense. Only the Rider 1911 is collected as the first.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No contemporary book-club edition documented. The governing trap is the 1925 W. Foulsham & Co. (London) issue, in purple cloth stamped gilt, pp. 190 plus advertisements: it is an abridged and partly rewritten text, cut from 40 chapters to 28 — the final eleven chapters compressed into five, producing the abrupt ending critics complain of — by an unidentified hand, and it drops the plates. Because the Foulsham abridgment remained the standard UK text until the full 1911 text was reprinted in 1986, most twentieth-century reprints descend from it rather than from the first; the 1966 Paperback Library Garden of Evil is a further retitled reprint in that line.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of The Lair of the White Worm a first edition?

A first edition of The Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker (William Rider & Son, London) is identified by: William Rider and Son, Limited, London, 1911: octavo (approx.

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. UK Rider 1911 is the true first and the only first — there was no simultaneous or near-simultaneous American edition.

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

No contemporary book-club edition documented. The governing trap is the 1925 W. Foulsham & Co. (London) issue, in purple cloth stamped gilt, pp. 190 plus advertisements: it is an abridged and partly rewritten text, cut from 40 chapters to 28 — the final eleven chapters compressed into five, producing the abrupt ending critics complain of — by an unidentified hand, and it drops the plates. Because the Foulsham abridgment remained the standard UK text until the full 1911 text was reprinted in 1986

I have a first edition of The Lair of the White Worm — 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.