# Is "The Mystery of the Yellow Room" by Gaston Leroux a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux (Pierre Lafitte et Cie, 1908) is identified by: The French first is an in-12 (approx. The true first is the French-language original: Pierre Lafitte et Cie, Paris, January 1908, following twelve-part serialisation in the supplement of L'Illustration, 7 September to 30 November 1907.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The French first is an in-12 (approx
- 17.8 x 11.8 cm) of 452 pages preceded by four unnumbered leaves (half-title, portrait, title, dedication), issued by Pierre Lafitte et Cie in January 1908 and complete with the portrait of Joseph Rouletabille by José Simont printed on glazed white paper
- The 1908 volume is otherwise unillustrated — this is the key separator, because Lafitte issued a fully illustrated edition the following year with plates by Edouard Loevy and Simont, and that 1909 illustrated printing is the most common 'first thus' trap
- Note that dealers report the words 'Edition Originale' appear printed on the front wrapper of copies generally, including large-paper copies, so that cover statement is not by itself proof of the first printing; rely on the 1908 date, the 452-page collation and the presence of the Simont portrait
- The first American edition (Brentano's, New York, 1908) is bound in publisher's illustrated mustard-yellow cloth/pictorial boards
- Publisher imprint reads Pierre Lafitte et Cie
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Gaston Leroux |
| Publisher | Pierre Lafitte et Cie |
| Year | 1908 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The French first is an in-12 (approx |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The French first is an in-12 (approx. 17.8 x 11.8 cm) of 452 pages preceded by four unnumbered leaves (half-title, portrait, title, dedication), issued by Pierre Lafitte et Cie in January 1908 and complete with the portrait of Joseph Rouletabille by José Simont printed on glazed white paper. The 1908 volume is otherwise unillustrated — this is the key separator, because Lafitte issued a fully illustrated edition the following year with plates by Edouard Loevy and Simont, and that 1909 illustrated printing is the most common 'first thus' trap. Note that dealers report the words 'Edition Originale' appear printed on the front wrapper of copies generally, including large-paper copies, so that cover statement is not by itself proof of the first printing; rely on the 1908 date, the 452-page collation and the presence of the Simont portrait. The first American edition (Brentano's, New York, 1908) is bound in publisher's illustrated mustard-yellow cloth/pictorial boards.

## Is this the true first?
The true first is the French-language original: Pierre Lafitte et Cie, Paris, January 1908, following twelve-part serialisation in the supplement of L'Illustration, 7 September to 30 November 1907. Both the French original and the first English translation are collected. The first English-language book edition is Brentano's, New York, 1908 (recorded as 3 June 1908) — a Haycraft-Queen cornerstone title in its own right; the Amalgamated Press (London) 1908 issue in original pictorial wrappers is catalogued by dealers as a colonial issue and follows the Brentano's. The Edward Arnold (London) edition is later still. English-language priority between the Brentano's and the Amalgamated Press issues rests on dealer cataloguing rather than a published bibliography, so state Brentano's as the first English edition with that caveat.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented for the 1908 printings. The dominant reprint tells are the 1909 Lafitte illustrated edition (plates by Loevy and Simont — a 'first thus', not the first), the later Eveleigh Nash & Grayson (London) 1926 edition in blue cloth lettered gilt, and twentieth-century reprint-series issues of the Brentano's translation.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Mystery of the Yellow Room* by Gaston Leroux a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-mystery-of-the-yellow-room
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.