T. H. White First Editions

• The Sword in the Stone — 1938 · CollinsThe census claim holds: Collins, London, 1938 is the true first. First edition, first impression is bound in publisher's black cloth with the spine lettered in white — not gilt; descriptions citing gilt-stamped black cloth conflict with the ABAA and UK trade cataloguing and should be treated with caution. Line-drawn chapter head- and tail-pieces are by T. H. White himself. Collins printed its impression history…. UK first: Collins (London, 1938) — the true first and the text collectors want. The first US edition, G. P. Putnam's Sons (New York, 1939), is a substantively different book, not a reprint: Putnam required revisions and White rewrote accordingly, most conspicuously the Madam Mim chapter (softened for a young audience) and the Robin Hood sequence, and he replaced the Anthropophagi episode with Queen Morgan le Fay…. Book-club issues struck from the Putnam 1939 sheets are common and are routinely catalogued by dealers as "1939 Putnam, Book Club Edition." The practical tell is the jacket: club copies appear in a jacket without price at the flap, and some carry no blind stamp on the rear board, so absence of a blind stamp alone does not clear a copy. Collins reprinted the 1938 text repeatedly in Britain; only the copyright-page….
• The Witch in the Wood — 1939 · G. P. Putnam's SonsG. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1939 — first edition, first printing, collating vii, 270 pages, with small line drawings and decorations by White throughout. Bound in glossy blue cloth, the spine lettered in gilt and the front board bearing a gilt stamp, top edge stained red, fore-edge machine-deckled and untrimmed. Issued in a pictorial dust jacket; look for the price present at the front flap (unclipped) and a…. US-first oddity CONFIRMED — the census claim is correct. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1939 precedes the first British edition (Collins, London, 1940, 281 pages) by one full calendar year, reversing the usual pattern for White, whose The Sword in the Stone had gone Collins-first in 1938. Multiple independent ABAA-grade dealers state the precedence explicitly ('This American edition is the true First Edition, published…. Watch the Putnam 'Arthurian Trilogy' boxed set (The Sword in the Stone / The Witch in the Wood / The Ill-Made Knight), which gathers the US first editions and is traded as a unit — the volumes inside can be genuine firsts, so check each copyright page individually rather than trusting the box. The 1958 Once and Future King omnibus is a revised text under a new title, not a reprint of this book, and cannot be a….
• The Ill-Made Knight — 1940 · G. P. Putnam's SonsG. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1940 — first edition, first printing. Octavo (about 8 3/16 x 5 the printed price inches; 207 x 147 mm), 291 pages, with White's own small illustrations at the beginning and end of each chapter. Bound in lapis blue cloth pictorially stamped in gilt: the front board bears a gilt illustration of a knight in armour, sword drawn, astride a galloping horse; title, author and publisher are…. US-first CONFIRMED — the census claim holds. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1940 precedes Collins, London, 1941 by one calendar year, the second consecutive US-first in the sequence after The Witch in the Wood (1939); dealers state it plainly ('issued the year before the British edition'). Both editions are collected: Putnam 1940 is the true first, Collins 1941 the first British. Beware UK dealer shorthand — Collins…. As with The Witch in the Wood, the Putnam 'Arthurian Trilogy' boxed set gathers the US firsts — verify each volume's copyright page rather than relying on the box or the set description. The 1958 Once and Future King omnibus carries a revised text and is not a reprint of this printing. Later Putnam and Collins impressions and modern print-on-demand reissues are reprints or 'first thus.' No book-club issue of the….
• The Once and Future King — 1958 · CollinsThe census claim holds: Collins, London, first published April 1958. Collins printed its full impression history on the copyright page, and that list is the identification test — the first impression shows first publication in April 1958 and nothing after it, while Collins's own reprints of September 1958 and November 1958 and the fourth impression of March 1959 are each stated there. All of them retain the…. UK first: Collins (London), first published April 1958, which precedes the first American edition, G. P. Putnam's Sons (New York), published 25 August 1958 — so UK precedence is confirmed, not assumed. The Putnam is bound in blue cloth with the spine lettered in gilt and is collected as the first American edition and the first US collected edition; both the Collins and the Putnam are collected. The first-thus…. A 1958 Putnam book-club issue is documented and is the commonest US trap; club copies come in a jacket without price at the flap. On the UK side, the Collins September 1958, November 1958 and March 1959 impressions are routinely offered as "first edition" because the copyright page does say first published 1958 — the impression line is what separates them, and dealers who disclose "first edition, fourth….

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