Identification points are listed only where two independent sources agree. Last reviewed 28 Oct 2026.
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Heinemann published the first English edition in London in 1951 (Goldstone and Payne A29b), an octavo of xii, 111 pages bound in red cloth and issued in a dust jacket. The American first (Viking, New York, 1950, Goldstone and Payne A29a) is easy to separate: grey cloth lettered in red, 159 pages, and a copyright page stating first publication by the Viking Press in November 1950. Pan later reprinted the text in paperback together with The Pearl (from 1954), and those paperbacks are not the first.
Before the 1920s. A first edition carries the year of publication on the title page, under the imprint. Reprints either lose that date or gain a notice such as "Second Edition" or "Second Impression", so a first is a copy with a dated title page and no reprint notice.
From the 1920s. The back of the title page carries a printing history. A first edition reads "First published" followed by the year, with no further lines; each later impression or new edition adds its own dated line beneath it.
Read the full guide to Heinemann first editions, decade by decade, and check your copy's copyright page against it. Our number line decoder reads the printing from the row of numbers.
We have not yet confirmed the issue points that tell this first impression from later ones. Until we do, compare your copy's title page and copyright page with the publisher, place and year above: any later printing or edition statement means it is not this one.
Know the points? Tell us. We publish them, with credit, once a second source agrees.
Heinemann, United Kingdom, in 1951, in hardback.
Points of issue are listed only where at least two independent sources agree. Last reviewed 28 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.
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