Identification points are listed only where two independent sources agree. Last reviewed 20 Oct 2026.
Buy a copy: eBay
No sales recorded yet
We value a printing from verified sales of that exact printing, and none of the first impression has come to auction in our records so far. The chart and the value by condition appear here as soon as one does.
Pro members with this book on their wantlist are emailed when it sells under their price.
Holt, Rinehart and Winston published the novel in New York in April 1982. The first British edition is the New English Library hardback, London 1982, ISBN 0450048985, 380 pages, bound in blue boards with gilt lettering on the spine and issued in a dust jacket. Check the copyright page for a first impression.
NEL grew out of two paperback firms and later ran as a mass-market imprint, so many NEL books are paperbacks. Where a work first appeared abroad, an NEL copy is at best the first British edition, so check where and when the work was first published.
Read the full guide to New English Library 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.
New English Library, London, in 1982, in hardback.
Points of issue are listed only where at least two independent sources agree. Last reviewed 20 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.
For most books published since the 1920s, the original dust jacket carries a large share of the value, often most …
Read the guide →7 min readTo identify a first edition, check that your copy is the first printing of the first edition. Read the copyright …
Read the guide →6 min readBook condition grading uses a six-step trade scale: Fine, Near Fine, Very Good, Good, Fair and Poor. Collectors grade the …
Read the guide →