Identification points are listed only where two independent sources agree. Last reviewed 28 Oct 2026.
The full price history: every sale, the chart and values by condition.
You have opened your 3 free price histories for today. Members get 10 a day, Pro members unlimited.
The first book of the Snopes trilogy was published by Random House in New York in 1940 (421 pages). Chatto & Windus issued the first English edition in London the same year. It has 333 pages and is bound in mustard or gold cloth with the spine lettered in green, in a dust jacket. A 1957 Chatto issue keeps the 333 pages but is bound in blue cloth with gilt lettering, so check the cloth and the title page date.
Read the full guide to Chatto & Windus 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.
Chatto & Windus, London, in 1940, 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.
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 →