Is My Two Sought Adventure a First Edition?

The points of issue

• Full title 'Two Sought Adventure: Exploits of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser'
• Gnome Press title #62; copyright registered 15 May 1957
• Library of Congress catalog card number 57-7112
• About 4,000 copies were bound in all, in three successive bindings taken from the same sheets — so the POINT OF ISSUE IS THE BINDING, not the jacket
• First binding: black boards, spine lettered in red (3,000 copies, 1957)
• Later bindings: gray cloth lettered in red (about 1,000 copies, c

How Gnome Press, New York marked a first edition

• First editions generally STATE 'First Edition' on the copyright page — but this alone is NOT conclusive: in offset reprints Gnome sometimes left a prior publisher's 'First Edition' statement standing
• Confirm via binding measurements/bulk and priority dust-jacket points (rear-panel ad titles, jacket art state) documented title-by-title in the Gnome bibliography

Full Gnome Press, New York first-edition guide →

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Check for a number line or dated printing — the lowest number present is the printing; a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the tell.
3. Verify this is the US true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
4. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
5. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

Census claim confirmed. Gnome Press (New York, 1957) is the true first edition — a US small-press original with no UK predecessor and no foreign-language original, so only the US edition is collected. FIRST-THUS TRAP: the collection was reissued and expanded by Ace Books in 1970 as 'Swords Against Death', dropping the 'Induction' section (that material was reused in the companion volume 'Swords and Deviltry'). The Ace book is a later, differently-constituted text, not an edition of this book, and must never be catalogued as a first of it.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club edition is documented. The reprint tell here is internal rather than external: the gray-cloth (c. 1959) and red-boards (c. 1960) bindings are later issues of the same 1957 sheets, not separate printings — they are the common trap precisely because text block, jacket and imprint are otherwise identical to the first binding. Only black boards lettered in red on the spine represent the first binding.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Two Sought Adventure a first edition?

A first edition of Two Sought Adventure by Fritz Leiber (Gnome Press, New York) is identified by: Full title 'Two Sought Adventure: Exploits of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser'.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A stated first edition, a number line ending in 1, or a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the key. Census claim confirmed.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

No book-club edition is documented. The reprint tell here is internal rather than external: the gray-cloth (c. 1959) and red-boards (c. 1960) bindings are later issues of the same 1957 sheets, not separate printings — they are the common trap precisely because text block, jacket and imprint are otherwise identical to the first binding. Only black boards lettered in red on the spine represent the first binding.

I have a first edition of Two Sought Adventure — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.