# Is "The Thirty-Nine Steps" by John Buchan a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan (William Blackwood and Sons, 1915) is identified by: First edition, first impression: title page carries the William Blackwood and Sons imprint (Edinburgh and London) and the printed date 1915, with no later-impression statement. True first is the UK Blackwood edition, published October 1915.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, first impression: title page carries the William Blackwood and Sons imprint (Edinburgh and London) and the printed date 1915, with no later-impression statement
- Publisher's blue cloth with spine and front cover lettered in black
- 253 pages of text followed by two pages of Blackwood advertisements at the rear
- Printed on cheap wartime paper stock, so page edges are almost always tanned
- Blackwood reprinted the book repeatedly from October 1915 onward, so a copy must show no second-impression (or later) identification
- The dust jacket is a celebrated rarity — dealers note no jacketed copy has appeared at auction in decades
- Publisher imprint reads William Blackwood and Sons

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | John Buchan |
| Publisher | William Blackwood and Sons |
| Year | 1915 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, first impression: title page carries the William Blackwood and Sons imprint (Edinburgh and London) and the printed date… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First edition, first impression: title page carries the William Blackwood and Sons imprint (Edinburgh and London) and the printed date 1915, with no later-impression statement. Publisher's blue cloth with spine and front cover lettered in black; 253 pages of text followed by two pages of Blackwood advertisements at the rear. Printed on cheap wartime paper stock, so page edges are almost always tanned. Blackwood reprinted the book repeatedly from October 1915 onward, so a copy must show no second-impression (or later) identification. The dust jacket is a celebrated rarity — dealers note no jacketed copy has appeared at auction in decades.

## Is this the true first?
True first is the UK Blackwood edition, published October 1915. The first American edition (George H. Doran Company, New York, title page dated 1915) was registered for copyright on 30 October 1915 but publisher records indicate it was probably not issued until early 1916; both are collected, with the Blackwood edition holding clear precedence.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition documented, but later-impression Blackwood copies in identical blue cloth and the later Hodder & Stoughton reissues are common 'first thus' traps — the Blackwood imprint plus the 1915 title-page date without any later-impression statement is required.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Thirty-Nine Steps* by John Buchan a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-thirty-nine-steps
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.