5 Michael Moorcock first editions are documented on this shelf, from The Stealer of Souls (1963) to Gloriana (1978) across 5 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Michael Moorcock title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.
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- The Stealer of Souls — 1963 · Neville SpearmanNeville Spearman, London, published 25 October 1963. Octavo, 215pp, jacket art by Guy Nicholls; on an unclipped example the price is present at the jacket flap. No ISBN. The title page reads 'The Stealer of Souls and other stories' — the '...and other stories' subtitle was imposed by the publisher against Moorcock's wishes. The controlling point is the binding: the first printing is bound in ORANGE cloth/boards…. Census claim confirmed. This is a UK-only hardcover first: the first Elric book published and the first full-length book to appear under Moorcock's name, collecting the first five of the nine Elric novellas from Science Fantasy (June 1961 – April 1964). There is no competing US hardcover. The first American appearance is the Lancer paperback of 1967 (190pp, cover by Jack Gaughan) — a reprint, not a paperback…. The documented reprint tell is the second printing in green boards, otherwise identical to the orange-board first — the single most important trap on this title. Later omnibus appearances (Elric, 2001; Elric: The Stealer of Souls, 2008) are collections carrying revised and re-collected text, not reissues of the 1963 book; the constituent novellas were separately split into and absorbed by The Weird of the White….
- Stormbringer — 1965 · Herbert JenkinsHerbert Jenkins, London, 1965. Octavo, 192pp, bound in red boards lettered in white on the spine, jacket art by James Cawthorn; on an unclipped example the price is present at the jacket flap. No ISBN. The 192-page collation is itself diagnostic: the restored text first published by DAW in 1977 runs to 220pp, so any copy collating to 220pp is the later restored text and not this book. The 1965 sheets present the…. Publisher and year confirmed — Herbert Jenkins, London 1965 is the true first, it precedes the American Lancer, and the UK hardcover is the key Elric collectible. BUT THE CENSUS PRECEDENCE NOTE IS REFUTED AND CORRECTED HERE: the abridgment is in the Herbert Jenkins first edition itself, not in the Lancer. The 1965 book form was published 'abridged and revised', with roughly a quarter of the Science Fantasy serial…. 'First thus' traps are unusually thick on this title and none is the first edition: Lancer 1967 and September 1973 (US paperbacks), Mayflower December 1968 (UK paperback, 189pp, Bob Haberfield cover, reprinted 1969), and the DAW 1977 restored edition — which, despite carrying the fullest text published to that date and being widely described as definitive, is a reprint of the title. Later Granada, Berkley, Ace….
- Behold the Man — 1969 · Allison & BusbyFirst edition: London, Allison & Busby, 1969; 144 pp., 8vo, issued in red cloth-covered boards with the backstrip lettered in gilt. The copyright page carries the statement "First published in Great Britain by Allison & Busby Limited..." with no number line and no later-printing line; that statement plus the Allison & Busby imprint and 1969 date is what establishes the issue. The jacket is a photographic design…. UK precedes and is the true first: Allison & Busby (London), 1969, the first appearance in any form of the expanded novel. The first American appearance is the Avon mass-market paperback (New York, May 1970, 160 pp., cover art by Bob Foster) — collected as the first US edition but not the true first, and there was no US hardcover. First-thus trap: the text began as the Nebula-winning novella in New Worlds…. No book-club printing of the Allison & Busby edition is documented in the sources consulted. The routine confusions here are reprint paperbacks rather than club copies: Mayflower (1970) and Avon (1970) in the same year as one another, and the Avon/Equinox trade paperback of 1976, which is sometimes miscatalogued as a first because of its larger format. Any copy lacking the Allison & Busby imprint and the 1969….
- Elric of Melniboné — 1972 · Hutchinson & Co.First edition: London, Hutchinson & Co., published 4 September 1972; 191 pp., blue cloth, ISBN 0-09-112100-0, issued in a dust wrapper with the price present at the flap. Interior illustrations are by James Cawthorn and the jacket artwork is by Laurence Cutting — a wrapper carrying Michael Whelan or Robert Gould art is by definition a later American issue, never the first. The copyright page shows the Hutchinson…. UK precedes and is the true first: Hutchinson (London), 1972 — the first Elric story published as a novel in book form. The first American appearance is a corrupt one: the Lancer paperback of 1972 retitled The Dreaming City, re-edited without Moorcock's permission and retitled without his approval, as DAW's own subsequent note records — a variant text, not an authorized first. Two later US editions are both…. No book-club printing of the Hutchinson edition is documented in the sources consulted. The practical reprint tells are imprint and cover art: the Lancer "Dreaming City" wrapper, Whelan art (DAW 1976 onward) or Gould art (Blue Star 1977 and its descendants) each mark a non-first issue. The Blue Star 1977 is a limited edition and reads as important, but it is a "first thus" — first American hardcover and first US….
- Gloriana — 1978 · Allison & BusbyUK Allison & Busby first hardcover, London, published 27 April 1978, full title Gloriana; or, The Unfulfill'd Queen, ISBN 0-85031-237-X. Copyright/title-verso states 'First published 1978' with no later printing line. Octavo, cloth-covered boards; first-state dust jacket carries cover art by Jill Riches and retains its original printed price on the flap. World Fantasy Award winner (Best Novel, 1979). The UK Allison & Busby hardcover (1978) is the true first; the US Avon paperback followed in 1979. The 1978 text carries Moorcock's original penultimate/climactic chapter; in 1993 he rewrote that scene, and most later editions carry the revised version (often printed as an appendix), so the Allison & Busby 1978 imprint is the only source of the unrevised original text. No book-club edition is the identification issue. The textual trap is the post-1993 revised-scene editions; confirm the Allison & Busby imprint, the 'First published 1978' statement, and the Jill Riches jacket art for the original unrevised text.
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