# Is "Trent's Last Case" by E. C. Bentley a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Trent's Last Case by E. C. Bentley (Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1913) is identified by: UK Nelson first, 1913: blue cloth boards with gilt spine titling, colour frontispiece, and printed pictorial endpapers; the Nelson imprint on the title page. The UK Nelson 1913 edition and the US Century 1913 edition (titled The Woman in Black) appeared at essentially the same time in early 1913, not with a clear interval.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- UK Nelson first, 1913: blue cloth boards with gilt spine titling, colour frontispiece, and printed pictorial endpapers; the Nelson imprint on the title page
- Dust jackets rarely survive
- The US Century edition of the same year carries the variant title The Woman in Black
- Publisher imprint reads Thomas Nelson & Sons
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | E. C. Bentley |
| Publisher | Thomas Nelson & Sons |
| Year | 1913 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | UK Nelson first, 1913: blue cloth boards with gilt spine titling, colour frontispiece, and printed pictorial endpapers; the Nelson imprint… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
UK Nelson first, 1913: blue cloth boards with gilt spine titling, colour frontispiece, and printed pictorial endpapers; the Nelson imprint on the title page. Dust jackets rarely survive. The US Century edition of the same year carries the variant title The Woman in Black.

## Is this the true first?
The UK Nelson 1913 edition and the US Century 1913 edition (titled The Woman in Black) appeared at essentially the same time in early 1913, not with a clear interval. The Nelson edition is conventionally treated as the first edition proper, carrying the title by which the book is known, but the two are best described as near-simultaneous rather than one clearly preceding the other.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Later reprints (Knopf, Penguin and others) are clearly reprint imprints. The US Century The Woman in Black is the US issue under a variant title, near-simultaneous with the UK first rather than a later printing of it.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Trent's Last Case* by E. C. Bentley a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/trents-last-case
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.