Futura, 1990 cover
Cover of the Futura, 1990 edition of this book. The Gollancz 1988 jacket has not been photographed yet.
Identification points are listed only where two independent sources agree. Last reviewed 28 Oct 2026.
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Cradle, by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee, appeared in 1988 from Victor Gollancz in London and from Warner Books in New York. The British first is the Gollancz hardback, ISBN 0 575 04164 1, about 24 to 25 cm. The advance national bibliography record gave 256 pages, while a library copy and Wikipedia give 309 and 308, so rely on the book in hand rather than a listing. The Warner hardback (ISBN 0 446 51379 2) is the American first. The first British paperback is Futura, London, 1989 (ISBN 0 7081 4318 2, 374 pages), so any Futura copy is later. Check the title page and its reverse for the Gollancz imprint and 1988, with no later impression stated.
An older Gollancz first edition is identified by what is missing: later impressions are recorded on the back of the title page, so a copy with no impression line under its first-publication date is the first.
Allen and Patricia Ahearn's publisher list for ILAB says Gollancz made no first edition statement but noted subsequent printings, in the form "First published (year)" followed by "Second impression (year)". Dealers' listings show the same pattern. Two separate sellers of the 1948 reprint of Dilwyn Rees's The Cambridge Murders quote "Second impression (first cheap edition) January 1948" on the verso, one adding that "First published October 1945" is also stated, while the 1945 printing is offered simply as the first edition.
Read the full guide to Gollancz 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.
The cover image shows this book but may not be this edition or printing.
Gollancz, London, in 1988, 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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