How to Identify a Mercury Publications / Mercury Mysteries (Lawrence Spivak) First Edition

How to identify a first printing

• Digest-sized paperback reprint/abridgment line (1937-1950s) tied to The American Mercury / Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine; identify by series number (Mercury Mystery #/Bestseller Mystery #/Jonathan Press #).
• Generally REPRINTS or abridgments, not firsts; the series number and digest format are the identifiers. Copyright page notes the original publisher.
• First-printing-of-the-digest can be inferred from the series number and absence of a reprint note, but the magazine/original hardcover is usually the true first.

Notable points & cautions

• Edited/published in the orbit of Lawrence Spivak and Frederic Dannay (Ellery Queen); important historically for keeping detective fiction in print cheaply.
• Confused with Fawcett/Dell only superficially — Mercury is digest-sized and reprint-oriented.
• Occasionally the digest is the first BOOK appearance of a story that ran only in a magazine; in those cases note 'first book appearance,' not 'first edition.'

Imprints

First editions also appear under: Mercury Mystery, Bestseller Mystery, Jonathan Press Mystery, Ellery Queen / The American Mercury digest line. Each generally follows the house convention above.

Frequently asked questions

How do I know if my Mercury Publications / Mercury Mysteries (Lawrence Spivak) book is a first edition?

Check the copyright page. Digest-sized paperback reprint/abridgment line (1937-1950s) tied to The American Mercury / Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine; identify by series number (Mercury Mystery #/Bestseller Mystery #/Jonathan Press #). Generally REPRINTS or abridgments, not firsts; the series number and digest format are the identifiers. Copyright page notes the original publisher.

Does Mercury Publications / Mercury Mysteries (Lawrence Spivak) use a number line?

Generally REPRINTS or abridgments, not firsts; the series number and digest format are the identifiers. Copyright page notes the original publisher.

Is a book-club edition a Mercury Publications / Mercury Mysteries (Lawrence Spivak) first edition?

No. Book-club editions reprint the text but are not the true first edition. Edited/published in the orbit of Lawrence Spivak and Frederic Dannay (Ellery Queen); important historically for keeping detective fiction in print cheaply.

What era does this cover?

This covers Mercury Publications / Mercury Mysteries (Lawrence Spivak) (1937-1950s). Conventions changed over time, so confirm the era of your copy.