NMLP P-040939 · True-first precedence · minted 2026-07-19
The Room in the Tower and Other Stories
E. F. Benson · Mills & Boon, Limited, London · 1912
The London Mills & Boon 1912 edition is the true first, and there is no competing contemporary US edition — the census claim is confirmed. This is Benson's first collection of ghost stories, seventeen tales. The US did not see a separate edition until Alfred A. Knopf reissued it in 1929, which is a 'first thus' trap: the Knopf is markedly commoner than the Mills & Boon and is regularly mis-offered as a first.
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New Mexico Literacy Project — True-first precedence NMLP P-040939 for "The Room in the Tower and Other Stories" by E. F. Benson (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/id/point/p-040939, CC BY 4.0, dataset DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21184548).