Hardback

Mourning Becomes Electra (1932)

Identification points are listed only where two independent sources agree. Last reviewed 20 Oct 2026.

Market value

What decides the price

  • It is the first UK edition; the true first was published elsewhere.
  • The original dust jacket carries much of the price for a book of this age; its condition matters as much as the book's.
  • Condition is graded separately for book and jacket, from Fine down to Poor.

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Sales record

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.

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In short

Quick answer

Who published the Mourning Becomes Electra 1932 hardback?
Jonathan Cape, London, in 1932, in hardback.
Identification

How to identify this edition

O'Neill's trilogy (Homecoming, The Hunted and The Haunted) opened in New York in October 1931 and was first published there by Horace Liveright in 1931; that American book is the true first. The first British edition is the Jonathan Cape hardback, London 1932, 288 pages, issued in cloth with a dust jacket. Cape kept the book in print for decades, so check the verso of the title page for a later impression date before treating a Cape copy as the 1932 first.

Publisher's practice

How Jonathan Cape marked its first editions

  • UK first editions name Jonathan Cape on the title page and carry a "First Published" statement with the year on the reverse of the title page. A first impression shows that statement with no later printings listed beneath it.
  • Live and Let Die (1954) exists in three jacket states on first-impression copies, told apart by whether and where the jacket designer's credit appears on the front flap.
  • Press reviews printed on the jacket flaps generally indicate a jacket from a later impression; on Casino Royale (1953) a Times review on the front flap marks a later run.

Read the full guide to Jonathan Cape 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.

Printing by printing

Printings and states

First impression

1932

At a glance

Not yet researched

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.

Questions collectors ask

Frequently asked questions

Who published the Mourning Becomes Electra 1932 hardback?

Jonathan Cape, London, in 1932, in hardback.

Sources

Where these facts come from

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.