# Is "The Secret Agent" by Joseph Conrad a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad (Methuen & Co., 1907) is identified by: First English edition, Methuen & Co., London, September 1907, in a first printing of 2,500 copies. Methuen, London, September 1907 is the accepted true first and the census claim stands, but the margin is narrower than the claim implies: the first American edition — Harper & Brothers, New York (Cagle A12b, binding a; Smith 13; Keating 75; Conolly 100 15b), 4,000 copies in blue pictorial cloth — also appeared in September 1907, and the sources consulted do not fix an exact day for either.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First English edition, Methuen & Co., London, September 1907, in a first printing of 2,500 copies
- The title page is dated 1907 with no printing statement or number line
- Collation is [6], 442, [2] pp., followed by 40 pages of inserted publisher's advertisements at the rear dated September 1907 — the ad date and the 40-page count are the standard first-impression check
- The textual point of issue is on the last line of p
- 117, where the text reads "be be" in place of "to be." Binding is red cloth, the spine lettered and decorated in gilt; spine fading is near-universal in surviving copies, so an unfaded spine is exceptional rather than a point
- Publisher imprint reads Methuen & Co.
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Joseph Conrad |
| Publisher | Methuen & Co. |
| Year | 1907 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First English edition, Methuen & Co., London, September 1907, in a first printing of 2,500 copies |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First English edition, Methuen & Co., London, September 1907, in a first printing of 2,500 copies. The title page is dated 1907 with no printing statement or number line. Collation is [6], 442, [2] pp., followed by 40 pages of inserted publisher's advertisements at the rear dated September 1907 — the ad date and the 40-page count are the standard first-impression check. The textual point of issue is on the last line of p. 117, where the text reads "be be" in place of "to be." Binding is red cloth, the spine lettered and decorated in gilt; spine fading is near-universal in surviving copies, so an unfaded spine is exceptional rather than a point.

## Is this the true first?
Methuen, London, September 1907 is the accepted true first and the census claim stands, but the margin is narrower than the claim implies: the first American edition — Harper & Brothers, New York (Cagle A12b, binding a; Smith 13; Keating 75; Conolly 100 15b), 4,000 copies in blue pictorial cloth — also appeared in September 1907, and the sources consulted do not fix an exact day for either. Methuen's priority rests on the conventional attribution and on Cagle's finding that Harper set its text from uncorrected proofs supplied by Methuen, recording more than one hundred variants between the two of the kind easily corrected in proof. Both editions are collected; treat the Methuen as the first and the Harper as the first American.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition is documented for 1907. The relevant issue caveat is colonial: of the 2,500 copies, 500 were allotted to Canada and 500 to colonial markets, and Methuen later redirected unsold colonial copies to the home market with no visible evidence of cancellation — colonial and domestic copies are therefore not reliably distinguishable. Copies lacking the 40-page September 1907 advertisement section, or with a corrected p. 117, are later; the Methuen cheap reprints and later collected editions are "first thus" only.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Secret Agent* by Joseph Conrad a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-secret-agent
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.