Identification points are listed only where two independent sources agree. Last reviewed 28 Oct 2026.
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Archibald Constable published the first edition at Westminster in 1903, a small octavo of about 18 cm. It opens with Shaw's long Epistle Dedicatory to the critic A. B. Walkley, runs to 244 pages of text including The Revolutionist's Handbook as an appendix, and ends with a few leaves advertising Shaw's other works. It is bound in pale or olive green cloth with the title lettered in gilt on the spine, and the top edge is gilt. Check the title verso for an impression statement: copies marked with a count of thousands are later 1903 impressions.
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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Constable, Westminster, in 1903, 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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