# Is "The Poisoned Chocolates Case" by Anthony Berkeley a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Poisoned Chocolates Case by Anthony Berkeley (W. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd., 1929) is identified by: CENSUS CORRECTED ON THE IMPRINT: this is not a Collins Crime Club book. The true first is the UK edition: W.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- CENSUS CORRECTED ON THE IMPRINT: this is not a Collins Crime Club book
- The Collins Crime Club imprint did not launch until 6 May 1930, so a Berkeley title published by Collins in 1929 can only carry the plain W. Collins Sons & Co
- Ltd. imprint; any copy offered as a '1929 Collins Crime Club first' is misdescribed
- UK first: Collins used no edition statement on firsts, with the title-page date matching the copyright date and later impressions noted on the verso ('First published 1929 / Second impression...'), so the absence of a later-impression line is the test
- The binding is reported as original black cloth lettered in red on the spine and front board — this rests on a single dealer description (of a copy from the library of John Cooper, an authority on detective-fiction collecting) and is not independently corroborated, so treat it as indicative rather than diagnostic
- US first: Doubleday, Doran & Company for The Crime Club, Inc., Garden City, 1929 — 'First Edition' is stated on the copyright page, and note the inverted trap that Doubleday/Crime Club REMOVED the statement on later printings, so a copy without it is a reprint, not a first; black cloth with titling and decorations stamped in red on spine and front cover, collating [x], 299, [3] pp. with a Crime Club statement on the penultimate leaf, and some copies carry a laid-in publisher's slip reading 'The Christmas Selection of the Crime Club Jury.' Both jackets should be priced jackets with the price present at the flap
- Publisher imprint reads W. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd.

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Anthony Berkeley |
| Publisher | W. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. |
| Year | 1929 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | CENSUS CORRECTED ON THE IMPRINT: this is not a Collins Crime Club book |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
CENSUS CORRECTED ON THE IMPRINT: this is not a Collins Crime Club book. The Collins Crime Club imprint did not launch until 6 May 1930, so a Berkeley title published by Collins in 1929 can only carry the plain W. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. imprint; any copy offered as a '1929 Collins Crime Club first' is misdescribed. UK first: Collins used no edition statement on firsts, with the title-page date matching the copyright date and later impressions noted on the verso ('First published 1929 / Second impression...'), so the absence of a later-impression line is the test. The binding is reported as original black cloth lettered in red on the spine and front board — this rests on a single dealer description (of a copy from the library of John Cooper, an authority on detective-fiction collecting) and is not independently corroborated, so treat it as indicative rather than diagnostic. US first: Doubleday, Doran & Company for The Crime Club, Inc., Garden City, 1929 — 'First Edition' is stated on the copyright page, and note the inverted trap that Doubleday/Crime Club REMOVED the statement on later printings, so a copy without it is a reprint, not a first; black cloth with titling and decorations stamped in red on spine and front cover, collating [x], 299, [3] pp. with a Crime Club statement on the penultimate leaf, and some copies carry a laid-in publisher's slip reading 'The Christmas Selection of the Crime Club Jury.' Both jackets should be priced jackets with the price present at the flap.

## Is this the true first?
The true first is the UK edition: W. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd., London, June 1929. The US edition — Doubleday, Doran & Company / The Crime Club, Inc., Garden City, 1929 — is the first American edition and is separately collected; it was the Crime Club's Christmas 1929 jury selection, placing it late in the year and behind the June Collins publication. Note the confusing double use of 'Crime Club': in this pairing the Crime Club is the AMERICAN imprint, not the British one. The novel is an elaboration of Berkeley's long short story 'The Avenging Chance' (Pearson's Magazine, September 1929); the novel appeared before the story, and Sheringham's solution in the story is discarded in the novel.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The principal first-thus trap is the 2016 British Library Crime Classics edition, which is not merely a reprint: it adds an introduction and new epilogue by Martin Edwards, an alternative ending by Christianna Brand (written for a 1979 US re-release and first collected there), and a further new solution devised by Edwards — a materially different text. Later Collins impressions are noted on the verso; later Doubleday/Crime Club printings are identified by the ABSENCE of the 'First Edition' statement.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Poisoned Chocolates Case* by Anthony Berkeley a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-poisoned-chocolates-case
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.