Is My The Mystery of Edwin Drood a First Edition?

The points of issue

• True first is the serial issue in publisher's blue-green pictorial wrappers, six monthly parts (all published), April - September 1870; the wrapper design is by Charles Allston Collins, Dickens's son-in-law, who withdrew through ill health after designing the cover and was replaced as illustrator by Samuel Luke Fildes
• Complete sets have an engraved portrait of Dickens, an additional pictorial (vignette) title and 12 wood-engraved plates after Fildes - 14 plates in all as dealers usually count them
• The cardinal point is on the last part: the earliest state of the front wrapper of Part VI carries a printed 'Eighteenpence' slip pasted over the original 'Price One Shilling', Part VI being enlarged
• Hatton & Cleaver reportedly saw this in only about 10% of copies examined
• Each part has the Edwin Drood Advertiser at the front plus advertisements and slips at the rear; the cork-hats slip at the end of Part II and the Chapman & Hall advertisement in Part V are the scarce inserts
• Referenced as Gimbel A154, Hatton & Cleaver pp

How Chapman and Hall, London marked a first edition

• No edition statement on early firsts: identify by title-page date, absence of later-printing wording, and (for serialized novels) by the original part-issue versus the bound volume.
• For Dickens part-issues (Pickwick, Nicholas Nickleby, Martin Chuzzlewit, Our Mutual Friend, Edwin Drood), correct plates/etchings, advertisement slips, and wrapper states are the diagnostic points; Pickwick is the classi…

Full Chapman and Hall, London first-edition guide →

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. 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.
4. 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 census gets the story right but the precedence wrong: it lists the true first as the 1870 Chapman & Hall book. It is not. The true first is the six parts in original wrappers, April - September 1870, published before and during Dickens's death on 9 June 1870; the one-volume Chapman and Hall book edition of 1870 collects the fragment afterward and is the first edition in book form, a separate and later thing. Both are collected, the parts decisively the more desirable. Dickens completed roughly the end of Part VI of twelve projected parts, so the novel breaks off unfinished - the wrappered parts are all that was published.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club issue at this date. Traps: Part VI wrappers WITHOUT the 'Eighteenpence' slip (the later state, and the great majority of copies); respined or restored wrappers; sets lacking the cork-hats slip in Part II and the Chapman & Hall advertisement in Part V. The 1870 one-volume book edition is frequently offered simply as 'first edition' - true of the book form only, not of the work. Beware also the continuations and completions by other hands, e.g. Henry Morford's John Jasper's Secret (1871-72), which are separate works, not issues of Drood.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of The Mystery of Edwin Drood a first edition?

A first edition of The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens (Chapman and Hall, London) is identified by: True first is the serial issue in publisher's blue-green pictorial wrappers, six monthly parts (all published), April - September 1870; the wrapper design is by Charles Allston Collins, Dickens's son-in-law, who withdrew through ill health after designing the cover and was replaced as illustrator by Samuel Luke Fildes.

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 census gets the story right but the precedence wrong: it lists the true first as the 1870 Chapman & Hall book.

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

No book-club issue at this date. Traps: Part VI wrappers WITHOUT the 'Eighteenpence' slip (the later state, and the great majority of copies); respined or restored wrappers; sets lacking the cork-hats slip in Part II and the Chapman & Hall advertisement in Part V. The 1870 one-volume book edition is frequently offered simply as 'first edition' - true of the book form only, not of the work. Beware also the continuations and completions by other hands, e.g. Henry Morford's John Jasper's Secret (18

I have a first edition of The Mystery of Edwin Drood — 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.