Identification points are listed only where two independent sources agree. Last reviewed 20 Oct 2026.
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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First UK edition: William Heinemann, London, 1950. BNB earliest names Secker and Warburg, but every other record found gives Heinemann 1950 for the first book edition (with The Fallen Idol). Ours (Lorrimer 1968/69) is the later film-script book, which may need its own work.
A Heinemann first printing normally carries a "First published (year)" line on the back of the title page and no later impression or edition listed under it. Heinemann recorded reprints and new editions in that same place.
How to read it
Read the full guide to William Heinemann 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.
William Heinemann, London, in 1950, in hardback.
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.
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