Watership Down (1972)

Rex Collings, a small London publisher, issued Watership Down in November 1972 in a first printing of 2,500 copies. A first edition is bound in brown cloth with a gilt rabbit on the front board and the spine lettered in gilt, in a jacket priced £3.50 on the front flap.

What to check:

• Binding: brown cloth, gilt rabbit vignette on the front board, gilt spine.
• Maps: a folding leaf at the rear with two maps, one in colour. It must be present; copies without it are incomplete.
• Jacket: priced £3.50 on the front flap. Some guides give a lower price; £3.50 is the figure dealers agree on.
• ISBN: 0 901720 31 3.

The small first printing was followed by a reprint in 1973, then Puffin's paperback and the 1974 American edition from Macmillan, none of which is the first. Price-clipped jackets are common and worth noticeably less.

The folding map is the easiest thing to lose and the first thing to check. Open it carefully: it is often torn along the folds.

Sources: Lycanthia Books, Sancho's Rare Books, John Atkinson Books and Open Library.