# Is "The Wolves of Willoughby Chase" by Joan Aiken a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken (Jonathan Cape, 1962) is identified by: London: Jonathan Cape, 1962. The UK Cape 1962 edition is the true first — an ABAA firm assembling Aiken "first editions, UK or American according to precedence" places the Cape ahead of the American, and the Doubleday is explicitly catalogued as the first American edition.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- London: Jonathan Cape, 1962
- 159 pages, illustrated in black and white throughout by Pat Marriott, who also drew the dust wrapper
- Publisher's black boards lettered in silver foil at the spine
- Publisher's pictorial Marriott jacket, priced at the flap on unclipped copies — price-clipped copies are common in the trade
- The author's second book and the first of the Wolves Chronicles
- No copyright-page transcription was recovered from the sources consulted: dealers catalogue the first simply as "first edition, first printing," so identification rests on the Cape 1962 imprint, the Marriott artwork and the black-boards/silver-spine binding, with any added impression line on the verso marking a reprint
- Publisher imprint reads Jonathan Cape

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Joan Aiken |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape |
| Year | 1962 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | London: Jonathan Cape, 1962 |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
London: Jonathan Cape, 1962. 159 pages, illustrated in black and white throughout by Pat Marriott, who also drew the dust wrapper. Publisher's black boards lettered in silver foil at the spine. Publisher's pictorial Marriott jacket, priced at the flap on unclipped copies — price-clipped copies are common in the trade. The author's second book and the first of the Wolves Chronicles. No copyright-page transcription was recovered from the sources consulted: dealers catalogue the first simply as "first edition, first printing," so identification rests on the Cape 1962 imprint, the Marriott artwork and the black-boards/silver-spine binding, with any added impression line on the verso marking a reprint.

## Is this the true first?
The UK Cape 1962 edition is the true first — an ABAA firm assembling Aiken "first editions, UK or American according to precedence" places the Cape ahead of the American, and the Doubleday is explicitly catalogued as the first American edition. The first American edition (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1963) is separately collected and is not a mere reprint: it adds six Pat Marriott illustrations new to that edition and carries a dust jacket designed by Edward Gorey. Both editions are collected; the Cape holds priority.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented in the sources consulted for either the Cape 1962 or the Doubleday 1963, and no club tells for this title were established — verify rather than assume. Later Cape impressions, the Puffin and Dell paperbacks, and the many later reissues carrying the Gorey jacket art are plain reprints with no first-edition standing. The Gorey jacket belongs to the American edition, so a Gorey-jacketed copy is never the Cape first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Wolves of Willoughby Chase* by Joan Aiken a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-wolves-of-willoughby-chase
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.