# Is "The Lodger" by Marie Belloc Lowndes a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes (Methuen & Co., 1913) is identified by: First edition: Methuen & Co., London, September 1913, octavo, 311 pages, bound in blue cloth lettered in gilt on the spine and front board, with rough-cut (untrimmed) page edges. True first is the UK edition: Methuen & Co., London, September 1913, following serialisation of the expanded novel in the Daily Telegraph earlier in 1913 (the germ was a short story of the same name in McClure's Magazine, January 1911 — magazine appearance, not a book).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition: Methuen & Co., London, September 1913, octavo, 311 pages, bound in blue cloth lettered in gilt on the spine and front board, with rough-cut (untrimmed) page edges
- The terminal point is a 31-page publisher's catalogue bound in at the rear dated Autumn 1913 — a catalogue dated later than Autumn 1913, or absent, indicates a later impression
- The author is styled 'Mrs
- Belloc Lowndes' on the title page, which is normal for the first and not a point of issue in itself
- The first American edition (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1914) is a separate book to identify: octavo, 306 pages, in publisher's original red cloth titled in gilt on the upper board and spine, issued in a priced jacket with the price present at the flap; unclipped jacketed copies are very seldom seen
- Publisher imprint reads Methuen & Co.
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Marie Belloc Lowndes |
| Publisher | Methuen & Co. |
| Year | 1913 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition: Methuen & Co., London, September 1913, octavo, 311 pages, bound in blue cloth lettered in gilt on the spine and front board… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First edition: Methuen & Co., London, September 1913, octavo, 311 pages, bound in blue cloth lettered in gilt on the spine and front board, with rough-cut (untrimmed) page edges. The terminal point is a 31-page publisher's catalogue bound in at the rear dated Autumn 1913 — a catalogue dated later than Autumn 1913, or absent, indicates a later impression. The author is styled 'Mrs. Belloc Lowndes' on the title page, which is normal for the first and not a point of issue in itself. The first American edition (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1914) is a separate book to identify: octavo, 306 pages, in publisher's original red cloth titled in gilt on the upper board and spine, issued in a priced jacket with the price present at the flap; unclipped jacketed copies are very seldom seen.

## Is this the true first?
True first is the UK edition: Methuen & Co., London, September 1913, following serialisation of the expanded novel in the Daily Telegraph earlier in 1913 (the germ was a short story of the same name in McClure's Magazine, January 1911 — magazine appearance, not a book). CORRECTION to the census claim: the first American edition is Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1914 (recorded as March 1914), NOT 1913. Both editions are collected — the Methuen as the true first, the Scribner's as the first American edition — but a Scribner's copy dated 1913 does not exist and any such description should be treated as an error or a made-up date.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented for the 1913 Methuen or 1914 Scribner's printings. Reprint tells: later Methuen impressions carry an impression statement on the title-page verso and a later-dated or missing rear catalogue; the novel was reprinted heavily after Hitchcock's 1926 film, and those film-era and later trade reprints, along with continental 'copyright edition' issues offered by some dealers, are the usual substitutes for the Methuen first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Lodger* by Marie Belloc Lowndes a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-lodger
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.