# Is "Traitor's Purse" by Margery Allingham a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Traitor's Purse by Margery Allingham (William Heinemann, 1941) is identified by: True first is the Heinemann issue, London, February 1941: original orange cloth lettered in black, jacket artwork by C.W. UK precedes.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- True first is the Heinemann issue, London, February 1941: original orange cloth lettered in black, jacket artwork by C.W. Bacon, a priced jacket with the price present at the flap
- Heinemann first impressions show only the 'First published 1941' line on the title verso; a 'New impression' or dated reprint line beneath it rules the copy out
- The first American edition — Published for the Crime Club by Doubleday, Doran, New York, 1941, 280 pages, 21 cm (Library of Congress, LCCN 41003900) — retains the title Traitor's Purse and is bound in green decorative buckram lettered in black on upper cover and spine, with a black topstain
- Doubleday, Doran first printings state 'First Edition' on the copyright page; a copy lacking that line is a later printing
- Publisher imprint reads William Heinemann
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Margery Allingham |
| Publisher | William Heinemann |
| Year | 1941 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | True first is the Heinemann issue, London, February 1941: original orange cloth lettered in black, jacket artwork by C.W. Bacon, a priced… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
True first is the Heinemann issue, London, February 1941: original orange cloth lettered in black, jacket artwork by C.W. Bacon, a priced jacket with the price present at the flap. Heinemann first impressions show only the 'First published 1941' line on the title verso; a 'New impression' or dated reprint line beneath it rules the copy out. The first American edition — Published for the Crime Club by Doubleday, Doran, New York, 1941, 280 pages, 21 cm (Library of Congress, LCCN 41003900) — retains the title Traitor's Purse and is bound in green decorative buckram lettered in black on upper cover and spine, with a black topstain. Doubleday, Doran first printings state 'First Edition' on the copyright page; a copy lacking that line is a later printing.

## Is this the true first?
UK precedes. Heinemann, London published in February 1941 (Margery Allingham Society); the Crime Club / Doubleday, Doran first American edition followed the same year. Both are collected — the Heinemann as the true first, the Crime Club as the first American. CENSUS NOTE CORRECTED: Wikipedia and sources derived from it state the US edition appeared as 'The Sabotage Murder Mystery'. That is wrong for the hardcover. The Library of Congress records the 1941 Doubleday, Doran / Crime Club hardcover under the title Traitor's Purse (LCCN 41003900), and an ABAA dealer's first American edition is likewise titled Traitor's Purse. 'The Sabotage Murder Mystery' is the 1943 New Avon Library paperback retitle (LCCN 44008412, 280 pages, 17 cm) — a 'first thus' trap, not a first edition in any market.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The 1943 New Avon Library paperback retitled The Sabotage Murder Mystery is the commonest reprint mistaken for the US first; it is a 17 cm paperback carrying the Avon imprint and, per the LC record, garbles the original title as 'Traitor's curse'. On the US hardcover, a Doubleday, Doran copyright page without the 'First Edition' line is a later printing. No book-club printing of the Heinemann issue is documented in the sources consulted.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Traitor's Purse* by Margery Allingham a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/traitors-purse
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.