M. R. James First Editions

• Ghost Stories of an Antiquary — 1904 · Edward ArnoldOriginal oatmeal cloth ruled in red and lettered in black, with yapp (overhanging) fore-edges; issued without a dust wrapper. Four plates by James McBryde (he died in 1904 having completed only these four drawings, and James declined further illustration). A recognized first-impression text point is 'art museum' at page 55. An inserted 16-page publisher's catalogue dated November 1904 is cited by dealers as a…. The UK Edward Arnold 1904 edition is the true first. The 1905 second impression and later reprints, the US editions, and the 1931 Collected Ghost Stories are separate, later issues. Later impressions and reprints lack the yapp-edge oatmeal cloth and the four McBryde plates; absence of the plates indicates a reprint. Confirm the 'art museum' reading at page 55 and the first-impression binding.
• More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary — 1911 · Edward Arnold, LondonOctavo (approx. 217 x 153 mm), collating vii, 274 pp., bound in original grey pictorial cloth stamped in black with the distinctive bat design, and with white endpapers — the grey cloth and black bat are the primary binding point. Seven stories: 'A School Story,' 'The Rose Garden,' 'The Tractate Middoth,' 'Casting the Runes,' 'The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral,' 'Martin's Close,' and 'Mr Humphreys and His…. The census claim is confirmed as to the true first: London, Edward Arnold, 1911 is the first edition and the only period edition traced. Its predecessor volume is Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (Arnold, 1904). The census's further assertion that a separate US edition followed 'much later' could not be corroborated in the sources consulted, and no contemporary American edition of this title is recorded by the…. No book-club issue is documented for the 1911 Arnold edition. The recurring trap is the combined volume: many later editions print Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904) and More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911) together in one book, and these omnibus printings are 'first thus' at best. Any copy in a cloth other than grey with the black bat, or lacking the 1911 Arnold title page, is a later printing or reissue.
• The Collected Ghost Stories of M. R. James — 1931 · Edward Arnold & Co., LondonSmall octavo (approx. 5.5 x 8.25 in.), 647 pp., bound in original black cloth with the spine lettered in gilt (the gilt is commonly faded on surviving copies). THE CRITICAL POINT IS THE PRINTING STATEMENT, NOT THE DATE: the first was published April 1931 and a reprint followed in May 1931, so a copy with a 1931 title page can still be a second impression — the first carries only the 'First published April 1931'…. The census claim is confirmed on the essential point: the London Edward Arnold & Co. edition of 1931 is the first collected edition and the standard James text. The New York issue from Longmans, Green & Co., also 1931, is collected as the first American; sources agree it does not precede the Arnold and describe it as following or accompanying the London publication, but the exact relationship (separate American…. No dedicated book-club issue of the 1931 Arnold volume is documented, but the May 1931 reprint and the further Arnold reprints (a 1934 impression is commonly offered) are the practical traps — all are dated 1931 or later on the title page and are distinguished only by the printing history on the copyright page. Later 'Collected Ghost Stories' under other imprints, including the Oxford University Press edition of….

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