First edition Hardback

Surrounded (1974)

Publisher Bobbs-Merrill Year 1974 ISBN 9780672518591
In short

Quick answer

Who published the Surrounded first edition?
Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis, in 1974, in hardback.
What decides the price
  • It is the first edition, which is the one collectors want.
  • 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.

We are recording sales for this edition. Add it to your collection and we will tell you when a figure is ready.

Affiliate links

Buy a copy

Search results open on the seller's site. If you buy through these links we may earn a commission, which does not affect the price you pay or our values.

Publisher's practice

How Bobbs-Merrill marked its first editions

  • Before about 1936 Bobbs-Merrill had no consistent method. Some first printings carry the firm's bow-and-arrow device on the copyright page and some a first-edition statement, but many have neither.
  • From about 1936 a first printing should state "First Edition" or "First Printing" on the copyright page. One guide places the start of these statements around 1920 but stresses they were not used consistently.
  • The imprint helps date older books: the firm traded as the Bowen-Merrill Company from 1883 and took the Bobbs-Merrill name in 1903.
  • Book club copies (a general tell for US trade houses; no mark specific to this house was found): a jacket flap with no printed price is the commonest sign, though a printed price does not on its own rule out a club copy. Also look for a small blind stamp, such as a dot or square, pressed into the rear board, and for a book that is smaller and more cheaply made than the trade edition.

Read the full guide to Bobbs-Merrill 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

1974

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 Surrounded first edition?

Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis, in 1974, in hardback.