Ellery Queen First Editions

• The Roman Hat Mystery — 1929 · Frederick A. StokesUS Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York, 1929 is the true first edition, octavo, publisher's red cloth lettered in black, 325 pages. This is the first Ellery Queen novel and a Haycraft-Queen cornerstone title. The book's well-known textual features, the J.J. McC. introduction, the printed List of Characters, and the Challenge to the Reader that breaks before the solution, are present in the text and help confirm…. US Stokes 1929 is the true first; the UK Victor Gollancz edition of 1929 is a first-thus and follows the American printing. Grosset & Dunlap and Triangle reprints are common later issues carrying their own imprints. A genuine first must show the Stokes title-page imprint and no later-printing statement.
• The French Powder Mystery — 1930 · Frederick A. Stokes CompanyThe Frederick A. Stokes issue, New York, 1930: original red cloth, spine lettered and the outline of a bookend stamped in black, front board lettered in relief on a black bookend design, top edge stained red. The copyright page reads 1930 and the title page carries the date in roman as MCMXXX. Collates xvi plus 316 pages with plans, 20 cm (Library of Congress, LCCN 30018208). Stokes used no 'First published'…. US precedes. Stokes, New York 1930 is the true first; the Victor Gollancz issue, London 1930 — black cloth lettered in red, carrying the full subtitle 'A Problem in Deduction', 319 pages — is the first UK edition and is collected as such, dealers describing it as 'first UK edition' rather than the first. Ellery Queen was the joint pseudonym of the American cousins Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee, and Stokes…. Triangle Books issued a New York reprint in 1941 from the same xvi + 316 page setting as the Stokes first but in a smaller 19 cm format (Library of Congress, LCCN 42010941) — a Triangle imprint is always a reprint and is the commonest copy mistaken for the first. Later reprints include Otto Penzler Books (1995, LCCN 94030952). A jacket with 'second printing' at the lower front panel, or a copyright page carrying….
• The Greek Coffin Mystery — 1932 · Frederick A. Stokes CompanyStokes signalled a first printing by absence, so the copyright page must be read for what is NOT there: a Stokes first carries no printing statement of any kind beyond the copyright notice itself, and every subsequent printing is noted as "Second," "Third," and so on, either on the title page or on its verso. The ILAB and Quill & Brush (qbbooks) publisher tables agree on this rule independently, and dealer copies…. Both editions are collected and they are distinct settings, not shared sheets. US: Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York, 1932, 370 pages. UK: Victor Gollancz, London, 1932, 302 pages, in publisher's black cloth lettered red on the spine (two dealers describe the Gollancz cloth; one reads the spine lettering as pink, likely a faded copy). Which of the two appeared first is not documented in any source consulted:…. No book-club or reprint tells specific to this title were documented in the sources consulted. Later trade reprints of Ellery Queen titles appear under their own imprints on the title page and spine rather than Stokes; on the Stokes book itself, the printing notice on the title page or its verso is the operative reprint tell.
• Calamity Town — 1942 · Little, Brown and CompanyThe first printing carries an explicit 'FIRST EDITION' statement on the copyright page — independently reported by multiple dealers cataloguing copies in hand ('Stated first edition'; 'First edition stated'; 'States First Edition'). This matches Little, Brown's documented 1940s practice, when the firm moved from the 1930s 'Published (Month) (Year)' formula to a stated 'First Edition' or 'First Printing,' with…. The US edition — Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1942 — is the true first, and Wikipedia's infobox gives the publication place as the United States. The UK edition is Victor Gollancz, London, 1942 (confirmed by dealer listings), and is collected separately as the first English edition; Gollancz firsts of this date carry no edition statement, with later impressions noted on the verso. Do not confuse the…. Copies lacking the stated 'First Edition' on the copyright page are later Little, Brown printings. The Gollancz 1948 'First Cheap Edition' (and its 1949 reprint) is a reprint despite the word 'First' in the designation — a first-thus trap. No US book-club issue was documented in the sources consulted.

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