6 Richard Matheson first editions are documented on this shelf, from Born of Man and Woman (1954) to What Dreams May Come (1978) across 6 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Richard Matheson 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.
Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Richard Matheson copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- Born of Man and Woman — 1954 · The Chamberlain Press, Inc., PhiladelphiaMatheson's first book, collecting seventeen stories with an introduction by Robert Bloch; two stories ("Dear Diary" and "The Traveller") appear here for the first time. Dealers describe the copyright page as carrying a first-edition statement, but the decisive point is structural: the Chamberlain Press printing is the only printing that exists. L. W. Currey records that approximately 650 copies were distributed…. US first: The Chamberlain Press, Inc., Philadelphia, 1954 — the only hardcover printing and the true first of Matheson's first book. Two abridged successors are routinely mis-sold as firsts. Bantam's US paperback of 1955, retitled Third from the Sun (Bantam number 1294), drops four stories. The first British edition — Max Reinhardt, London, 1956 — runs to 164 pages and drops the Robert Bloch introduction along…. No book-club printing is documented, and the destroyed print run left no stock for one. The reprint traps are the abridged Bantam Third from the Sun (1955) and the abridged Max Reinhardt (1956), plus modern collector reissues from Gauntlet Press, Subterranean Press and Suntup Editions, which reprint the 1954 text and are "first thus" only.
- I Am Legend — 1954 · Gold Medal Books / FawcettGold Medal Books paperback original, 1954, Gold Medal number '417'. As a paperback original, the first edition is identified by the Gold Medal logo, the publisher's number, and the absence of any later printing line; first printing has the original the printed price cover price. Gold Medal 1954 paperback original is the true first — there is no prior hardcover. The first UK and all hardcover editions are later. The PBO with Gold Medal #417 and no reprint line is the collectible first. Later Gold Medal printings note 'Second printing' and carry higher prices/different cover numbers; the Walker hardcover (1970) and later reprints are not the first. First printing = no additional-printing statement.
- The Shrinking Man — 1956 · Gold Medal BooksCENSUS CLAIM CORRECTED. The paperback-original claim holds: the true first is the Gold Medal (Fawcett) paperback original, catalogue number s577, first printing May 1956, with the copyright page stating "First Printing, May 1956" — this dating is independently corroborated by the ISFDB title record (1956-05). 192 pp., cover art by Mitchell Hooks showing the shrunken man confronting a spider with a pin. Gold Medal…. The true first is the US Gold Medal paperback original (s577, May 1956). A separate British Gold Medal (Fawcett Publications) issue was also published in London in 1956, with its printed price — a distinct UK first printing that is collected in its own right. The first hardcover anywhere is David Bruce & Watson, London, 1973 (Kingsley Amis introduction), not a 1958 Muller hardcover as the census claimed. Later…. No book-club issue applies to a paperback original. Reprint tells: a Gold Medal catalogue number other than s577, or a copyright page giving a printing later than "First Printing, May 1956"; any hardcover predating 1973 should be treated as unrecorded and investigated rather than assumed.
- A Stir of Echoes — 1958 · J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia and New YorkThe first printing carries "First Edition" stated on the copyright page; the imprint line reads J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia and New York. Octavo (approx. 5.5 x 8.25 in.), 220 pages, bound in black cloth with the title lettered in yellow on the spine — one ABAA-market dealer describes the spine lettering as light yellow-green, so allow for that range in describing the same binding. The pictorial dust…. US first: J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia and New York, 1958, with "First Edition" stated on the copyright page — this is the true first and the edition collected as such. The first British edition followed from Cassell, London, also dated 1958, and is collected in its own right as the first UK edition; Lippincott has precedence as the American author's original publisher. Later hardcovers, notably the Tor…. No title-specific book-club printing is documented in the ABAA dealer and auction descriptions consulted; a Detective Book Club omnibus reprint of the period is referenced in secondary sources but was not confirmed against a primary description. General period tells apply for screening a suspected club printing: absence of the stated "First Edition", a blind stamp or small impressed dot on the rear board, thinner….
- Hell House — 1971 · The Viking Press, New YorkThe first-printing copyright page reads "First published in 1971 by The Viking Press, Inc." with no mention of any subsequent printing; that absence is the point dealers rely on, as later Viking printings add a printing statement. The binding is black paper-covered boards quarter/half-bound in navy blue cloth, the spine lettered in silver and blue-violet, with a violet top edge. 279 pp., octavo (approximately 8.3…. The US Viking Press hardcover of 1971 is the true first and the only collected hardcover first. No contemporary British hardcover is recorded in the sources consulted — the British edition was a Corgi paperback (London, 1973, 248 pp. plus advertisements), issued around the time of the film The Legend of Hell House — so the census claim that the Viking hardcover is the sole collected state is confirmed. No specific book-club issue point is documented in the sources consulted for this title. The distinguishing check between a first and a later printing is the copyright page alone: a second printing is catalogued as such by dealers but shares the same binding (dark blue cloth over black paper boards, silver and blue spine lettering) and the same grey-and-blue jacket, so binding and jacket cannot separate them.
- What Dreams May Come — 1978 · G. P. Putnam's Sons, New YorkG. P. Putnam's Sons used no first-edition statement and no number line in 1978. The first printing is identified by the 1978 date together with the ABSENCE of any impression line on the copyright page; later printings insert 'Second Impression' (third, fourth, etc.). Putnam did not adopt a number row until the mid-to-late 1980s. Two independent publisher guides document this practice — Books Tell You Why (which…. US first: G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1978 (published September 1978) — confirmed by multiple independent dealers including John W. Knott, Jr. (ABAA/ILAB), Robert Gavora Fine & Rare Books, Second Story Books, Magers and Quinn, and Falling Waters Booksellers. The census's 'UK Michael Joseph followed 1979' claim is CORRECTED: it is not confirmed. No Michael Joseph — or any other UK hardcover — first of this…. No book-club tells specific to this title were documented in the sources consulted. Because the Putnam first carries no statement, the jacket is the working discriminator: club copies of period Putnam titles characteristically carry no price at the front flap, often print 'Book Club Edition' at the base of that flap, and carry a blind-stamped impression on the lower rear board. The other reprint trap is the 1998….
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