3 Robert Graves first editions are documented on this shelf, from Good-bye to All That (1929) to The White Goddess (1948) across 3 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Robert Graves 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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- Good-bye to All That — 1929 · Jonathan CapePublished 18 November 1929 by Jonathan Cape, London, the title styled on the title page as "GOOD-BYE TO ALL THAT" (hyphenated) above "An Autobiography" (Higginson & Williams A32). Collation [A]8 B-2E8, 224 leaves. Bound in salmon (light red) cloth, spine stamped in gold "GOOD-BYE / TO / ALL THAT / [four diamonds] / ROBERT / GRAVES / JONATHAN CAPE", with the publisher's device blind-stamped on the rear board.…. Jonathan Cape, London, 18 November 1929 is the true first and the edition collected; the census claim is confirmed. The first American edition is Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith, New York, published 13 January 1930 — nearly two months later — and it follows the expurgated text, so it cannot carry the first-state points at all and is not a substitute for the London issue. Note the title styling: the 1929 first is…. The real trap is not a book club but the 1957 revision: Graves substantially rewrote the book for Cassell (London) and Doubleday (New York) in 1957, and that rewritten text — the one in print ever since — is a different book from the 1929 original, a "first thus" at best and routinely offered as though it were the first. Within 1929 the volume of printing is the hazard: 20,000 copies sold in the first week and….
- I, Claudius — 1934 · Arthur BarkerFirst edition published 4 May 1934 by Arthur Barker, London (Higginson & Williams A42). Bound in black cloth, spine stamped in gold "ROBERT GRAVES / I, / CLAUDIUS / BARKER", lower edge uncut; white laid paper with white wove endpapers; 248 leaves, 21.8 x 13.8 cm, text pp. 13-494, with the genealogical table "The Tree of the Imperial Family and Connexions" tipped in at p. 495 — the table must be present. The dust…. Arthur Barker, London, 4 May 1934 is the true first and precedes the first American edition — Harrison Smith and Robert Haas, New York, 4 June 1934, in dark blue buckram — by one month; the census claim is confirmed. Both are collected, with the Barker the senior. The sequel, Claudius the God, duly followed from Arthur Barker, London, on 5 November 1934 — the same year, as claimed — in matching black cloth under…. The sharpest reprint tell is the remainder issue: orange cloth copies distributed by W. H. Smith, with the genealogical table omitted — orange cloth plus a missing family tree marks a remainder, not a first. Nine further impressions followed between May 1934 and October 1935 (May, June, September and December 1934; January, May and October 1935), so an "Arthur Barker 1934" title page is not by itself sufficient:….
- The White Goddess — 1948 · Faber and FaberTrue first is Faber and Faber Ltd., 24 Russell Square, London, published 21 May 1948 (Higginson bibliography, via the Robert Graves Society, entry A61a). Bound in medium blue cloth with the spine lettered in gilt within triple rules; issued in a canary-yellow dust jacket printed in black and red, with a priced jacket; the London sheets have all edges trimmed and the top edges stained brown. Stated first printing…. The Faber (London) issue of 21 May 1948 precedes the first American edition, Creative Age Press, New York, 26 August 1948 (bibliography A61b), so London is the true first. The American edition is a distinct setting bound in brown cloth stamped with a device of three cranes and a star, in a white jacket printed in brown, black and yellow; the London top edges are stained brown while the New York copies are only…. Earliest Creative Age (New York) copies lack the 'PRINTED IN U.S.A.' line on the back jacket flap. Faber's later amended and enlarged edition is a revised text ('first thus') and must not be confused with the 1948 first; reprint impressions state the later printing on the verso.
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