Narnia First Editions: How to Identify The Chronicles of Narnia

Narnia first editions are the London editions published between 1950 and 1956: five by Geoffrey Bles and the last two by The Bodley Head, each in a dust jacket by Pauline Baynes. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe came first, on 16 October 1950, priced 8s 6d. Macmillan's American editions followed, in different bindings and, for the first book, with a reset text. To check a copy you need the publisher, the binding, the jacket price and the impression.

The standard reference is Joe R. Christopher and Joan K. Ostling's C. S. Lewis: An Annotated Checklist (1974), and the collector's site C. S. Lewis Editions records each printing in detail. No reliable print run figures have been published for any of the seven books.

The seven London firsts

Dates are from Wikipedia; cloth colours and prices from the C. S. Lewis Editions records, with the Lion and Last Battle confirmed by dealers. Sources describe the green of the first book as teal, light green or simply green, which probably reflects fading, so do not reject a copy on shade alone. The Last Battle won the Carnegie Medal for 1956.

How to check a first impression

• The "first published" line. Look for it on the copyright page of most volumes. In Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader it is printed at the back of the book instead.
• No later impressions. Bles reprinted the books throughout the 1950s and 1960s and listed each new impression. Any second or later impression line means a reprint.
• The jacket price. The first jackets carry the prices in the table. A jacket priced 12s 6d belongs to a reprint of the mid 1960s, when Bles raised the price.
• The jacket flaps and back panel. First issue jackets for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair have no later impression wording on the front flap, and their back panels advertise only the books published before them.
• Black cloth. Late Bles printings of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1965 and 1966) were bound in black cloth, a sure sign of a reprint.

Watch for one modern trap: in 2009 HarperCollins issued a replica of the first edition of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, in green cloth with a copy of the Bles jacket. It has a modern ISBN, which the 1950 book does not.

The American editions

Macmillan published every volume in New York after the London edition. Every American first is shorter than its British counterpart (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe has 154 pages against 172), and they are bound differently, often with a small picture on the cover. Jackets were priced $2.50 for the first two books and $2.75 for the rest.

The text of the American Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was reset, and Lewis made changes to it: the Witch's wolf is called Fenris Ulf rather than Maugrim, for example. From 1994 HarperCollins used the British text everywhere. American firsts are collected, but they are not the first editions. Our guide to first edition vs first American edition explains why that matters.

Paperbacks and later editions

The first paperback of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was Puffin's of 1959, priced 3s 6d, with a full colour Baynes cover. Early Puffins are collected for their own sake, but they are worth far less than the hardbacks. Later Bles and Bodley Head impressions are worth a fraction of the firsts, unless signed or inscribed.

What they sell for

Prices for the first book are well above the rest:

• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in its jacket: dealers ask around £8,500 to £9,500 for good copies. A signed first made £17,000 at Bloomsbury Auctions in 2010, according to a dealer's account of the sale.
• The Last Battle in its jacket: around £1,800 from a major dealer. A signed copy made £4,200 at Sotheby's in 2007, by the same dealer's account.
• A complete set of seven in first issue jackets: one dealer asks £32,500.

These are asking prices and reported results, not valuations of your copy. Condition, a bright unclipped jacket and the right jacket price make the difference. See our guide to how much your book is worth.

Check your copy

1. Read the title page: London, Geoffrey Bles or The Bodley Head, and the year in the table.
2. Find the "first published" line (at the back for Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader) and check that no later impressions are listed.
3. Check the jacket price against the table, and look for later impression wording on the flaps.
4. Compare the cloth colour, allowing for fading.
5. Rule out the 2009 replica: a modern ISBN means it is not the 1950 book.
6. Grade the book and jacket with our condition guide, then try Is my book valuable?.