Bloomsbury Publishing is a publisher based in London. We track 448 editions it published between 1972 and 2025, 153 of them first editions across 405 books. How Bloomsbury Publishing marked its first editions is set out below, with a checker for the year on your title page.
About Bloomsbury Publishing
Bloomsbury Publishing is a London publisher founded in 1986 by Nigel Newton, best known as the original UK publisher of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter books from 1997.
The company is based on Bedford Square in Bloomsbury. Newton, who had worked at other publishing houses before, is chief executive. It floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1994 at a valuation of about £9 million and is now a FTSE 250 company trading as BMY.
Bloomsbury took on Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone after other publishers had turned it down, issuing the first impression in 1997 with a hardback run of about 500 copies, many of them sold to libraries. In December 2021 a copy of that first impression sold at Heritage Auctions for $471,000. Its wider list has included Abdulrazak Gurnah, winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, Susanna Clarke's Piranesi, Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential and Jesmyn Ward.
The group opened Bloomsbury USA in New York in 1998 and has grown by acquisition, adding A & C Black, Methuen Drama, the Arden Shakespeare, I.B. Tauris, Berg (2008), ABC-CLIO (2021) and the academic division of Rowman & Littlefield (2024). It also has offices in Oxford, New Delhi and Sydney.
Holding a copy? The first edition checker shows Bloomsbury Publishing's practice for the year on your title page.
Identification
How to identify Bloomsbury Publishing first editions
What to look for
Bloomsbury's most collected books, the Harry Potter first impressions, are identified on the copyright page: the first publication year as the only date and a number line running all the way down to 1.
First-impression copies repeat "1 wand" in the school equipment list on page 53, and the rear cover misspells the title as "Philospher's".
The first impression hardback ran to about 500 copies, most of them supplied to libraries.
Traps
Lines that stop short of 1. The lowest number in a number line is the printing, so a Philosopher's Stone whose line ends at 2 or higher is a later printing even when 1997 is still the only date.
Missing jacket prices. A jacket with no printed price most often belongs to a book club edition, although some ordinary trade jackets are unpriced too.
Examples
A Philosopher's Stone hardback with 1997 alone on the copyright page, the line down to 1, "1 wand" twice on page 53 and "Philospher's" on the back cover is a first impression. See our Harry Potter first editions guide.
How do I identify a Bloomsbury Publishing first edition?
Bloomsbury's most collected books, the Harry Potter first impressions, are identified on the copyright page: the first publication year as the only date and a number line running all the way down to 1. - A first impression of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997) has 1997 as the only date on the copyright page and the full line "10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1". - First-impression copies repeat "1
How many Bloomsbury Publishing books does MyVolumes track?
We track 448 editions published by Bloomsbury Publishing, 153 of them first editions, across 405 books.
