Identification points are listed only where two independent sources agree. Last reviewed 12 Nov 2026.
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Bantam published the novel in the United States in 1968, and the first British edition is a Corgi paperback of the same year carrying the Standard Book Number 552 07913 8. A UK library catalogue record describes it as 121 pages, illustrated, 19 cm, and the record for the 1982 Robert Hale hardback (London) notes that the book first appeared in London from Corgi in 1968. Corgi reissued it in London in 1973 under a new number, ISBN 0 552 09343 2 (about 120 pages), so a copy with that number is a later printing. Bantam copies carry a New York imprint and are American. The story follows two small children, Hardy Collins and Betty Sue Powell, left alive after raiders wipe out their wagon train.
Corgi is chiefly a paperback reprint imprint. For most titles a Corgi copy is a later edition, not the first edition, however early the printing.
Read the full guide to Corgi 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.
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Corgi, United Kingdom, in 1968, in paperback.
Points of issue are listed only where at least two independent sources agree. Last reviewed 12 November 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.
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