# Is "The Woman in Black" by Susan Hill a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (Hamish Hamilton, London, 1983) is identified by: London: Hamish Hamilton, 1983. UK precedes US, and the census note is correct on precedence.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- London: Hamish Hamilton, 1983
- First edition, first impression, in publisher's green cloth, 8vo, with an illustrated dust jacket and half-page and vignette illustrations within the text
- CORRECTION to the census note: the illustrator is JOHN LAWRENCE, not 'Barrett' — no Barrett illustrations are associated with the 1983 Hamish Hamilton first, and Lawrence's credit carries through to the 1986 first American edition
- Identification is from the copyright page, which on a first carries the 1983 Hamish Hamilton first-publication statement with no later impression number added; dealers uniformly catalogue the point as 'first edition, first impression,' though none of the sources consulted quotes the exact copyright-page wording, so confirm that no later impression figure has been added
- Green cloth is corroborated by multiple ILAB/ABA dealers
- Jacket is the Lawrence-illustrated jacket and should be priced at the flap; price-clipped jackets are very common in the trade and are a condition point, not a printing point
- Publisher imprint reads Hamish Hamilton, London

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Susan Hill |
| Publisher | Hamish Hamilton, London |
| Year | 1983 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | London: Hamish Hamilton, 1983 |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
London: Hamish Hamilton, 1983. First edition, first impression, in publisher's green cloth, 8vo, with an illustrated dust jacket and half-page and vignette illustrations within the text. CORRECTION to the census note: the illustrator is JOHN LAWRENCE, not 'Barrett' — no Barrett illustrations are associated with the 1983 Hamish Hamilton first, and Lawrence's credit carries through to the 1986 first American edition. Identification is from the copyright page, which on a first carries the 1983 Hamish Hamilton first-publication statement with no later impression number added; dealers uniformly catalogue the point as 'first edition, first impression,' though none of the sources consulted quotes the exact copyright-page wording, so confirm that no later impression figure has been added. Green cloth is corroborated by multiple ILAB/ABA dealers. Jacket is the Lawrence-illustrated jacket and should be priced at the flap; price-clipped jackets are very common in the trade and are a condition point, not a printing point. Copies signed by Hill exist, and copies signed by John Lawrence at the half-title are also recorded — neither signature bears on printing status.

## Is this the true first?
UK precedes US, and the census note is correct on precedence. The true first is Hamish Hamilton, London, 1983. The first American edition is David R. Godine, Boston, 1986 — stated 'First American Edition,' retaining John Lawrence's black-and-white pen-and-ink drawings, 160 pp., in a jacket priced at the flap. Both are collected and the Godine is genuinely scarce, but it is a first American edition, not the first edition, and should be described that way. Later illustrated, anniversary and post-2012-film reissues are 'first thus' at best.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition of the 1983 Hamish Hamilton first is documented in the sources consulted. The dominant trap is sheer volume of later printings: the long-running stage adaptation and the 2012 film drove very heavy reissue under Hamish Hamilton, Vintage and Penguin imprints, and these later-dated paperbacks and tie-ins are what a donor almost always has. The second trap is the 1986 Godine being offered as 'first edition' on the strength of its 'First American Edition' statement. Green cloth plus a Lawrence-illustrated jacket plus a 1983 Hamish Hamilton copyright page with no later impression number is the combination to look for.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Woman in Black* by Susan Hill a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-woman-in-black
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.