Identification points are listed only where two independent sources agree. Last reviewed 28 Oct 2026.
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Chapman & Hall, London, 1938, subtitled 'A Novel About Journalists'. Bound in black and red patterned cloth (one dealer calls it snakeskin effect). The dust jacket carries a mock newspaper front page; on the first state the masthead shows a partial 'Daily Beast' in lettering resembling the Daily Express. After Lord Beaverbrook threatened legal action the jackets were reprinted with a blank masthead, so a blank masthead marks the second state jacket, which is also found on first impression copies. The price 7s 6d net is printed on the front flap. Some copies keep a publisher's wraparound band. In the first issue text, 'as' is the last word on p. 88.
Read the full guide to Chapman and Hall 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.
Check these points. Dust jacket, front panel: mock newspaper masthead shows a partial 'Daily Beast'. P. 88, last line: the last word is 'as', with the 's' present. Dust jacket, front flap: Printed price on the front flap: 7s. 6d. net. Each point is confirmed by at least two independent sources.
Chapman and Hall, London, in 1938, 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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