# Is "The Rats" by James Herbert a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Rats by James Herbert (New English Library, London, 1974) is identified by: The true first is the New English Library hardback of 1974, issued in a pictorial dust jacket; the jacket should be priced at the front flap (unclipped), as price-clipping is common on this title. UK precedence: the NEL London 1974 hardback precedes the NEL paperback of the same year.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The true first is the New English Library hardback of 1974, issued in a pictorial dust jacket; the jacket should be priced at the front flap (unclipped), as price-clipping is common on this title
- No printing statement or number line is documented for the NEL hardback, so identification rests on the NEL imprint, the 1974 date on the title/copyright leaf, and hardback format — there is no copyright-page 'first edition' declaration to look for
- The hardback run was small and directed largely at lending libraries, so ex-library copies with stamps, pockets and reinforced jackets are disproportionately common and the trade-condition copy is the scarce state
- Board colour should NOT be used as a point: dealer catalogues describe the boards variously as brown, black and green with gilt spine lettering, a conflict that most likely reflects later NEL and Hodder hardback reissues being catalogued alongside the 1974 first
- Herbert's first novel
- Publisher imprint reads New English Library, London
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | James Herbert |
| Publisher | New English Library, London |
| Year | 1974 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The true first is the New English Library hardback of 1974, issued in a pictorial dust jacket; the jacket should be priced at the front… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
The true first is the New English Library hardback of 1974, issued in a pictorial dust jacket; the jacket should be priced at the front flap (unclipped), as price-clipping is common on this title. No printing statement or number line is documented for the NEL hardback, so identification rests on the NEL imprint, the 1974 date on the title/copyright leaf, and hardback format — there is no copyright-page 'first edition' declaration to look for. The hardback run was small and directed largely at lending libraries, so ex-library copies with stamps, pockets and reinforced jackets are disproportionately common and the trade-condition copy is the scarce state. Board colour should NOT be used as a point: dealer catalogues describe the boards variously as brown, black and green with gilt spine lettering, a conflict that most likely reflects later NEL and Hodder hardback reissues being catalogued alongside the 1974 first. Herbert's first novel; 186 pp.

## Is this the true first?
UK precedence: the NEL London 1974 hardback precedes the NEL paperback of the same year. ABA/ILAB/PBFA dealers catalogue the two states separately and explicitly — the hardback as the 'true first printing' and the 1974 paperback as the 'first paperback edition' — and review/reference sources likewise record NEL as having published the first edition in hardback. Both 1974 states are collected, but only the hardback is the first edition. No US hardcover of the period is documented in the sources consulted; the American appearance was a Signet/New American Library mass-market paperback, a later state and not the first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The 1974 NEL paperback and its reprints declare their own paperback history on the printer's page (a first paperback issue reads 'First NEL paperback edition November 1974'; a later printing adds a further 'This new edition...' line) — any such line rules the copy out as the hardback first. Later hardback reissues (Hodder, and the Centipede Press 2015 Rats Trilogy) are 'first thus,' not the 1974 first. No UK book-club edition of the 1974 hardback is documented in the sources consulted.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Rats* by James Herbert a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-rats
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.