- Decline and Fall (1928), first issue: the name "Martin Gaythorn-Brodie" (also spelled Gaythorne-Brodie) appears on page 168 and "Kevin Saunderson" on page 169.
- Decline and Fall (1928): the original dust jacket is a green pictorial design.
- Scoop (1938): the first-state dust jacket has "Daily Beast" on the front panel.
Publisher · founded 1834
Chapman and Hall
London publisher founded in 1834 by Edward Chapman and William Hall, publisher of Dickens and Evelyn Waugh, whose name now lives on as a Taylor & Francis science imprint.
- Editions tracked
- 58
- First editions
- 26
- Books
- 57
- Years
- 1831 to 1997
Chapman and Hall is a publisher based in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, founded in 1834. We track 58 editions it published between 1831 and 1997, 26 of them first editions across 57 books. How Chapman and Hall marked its first editions is set out below, with a checker for the year on your title page.
About Chapman and Hall
Chapman and Hall is a London publishing house founded in 1834 by Edward Chapman and William Hall, best known to collectors as a publisher of Charles Dickens in the Victorian era and of Evelyn Waugh in the twentieth century.
Dickens published with the firm from 1840 to 1844 and again from 1858 until 1870, and its Victorian list also took in Thomas Carlyle, William Thackeray, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Anthony Trollope. After Hall died in 1847, Edward Chapman's cousin Frederic Chapman rose through the business, becoming a partner in 1858 and sole proprietor on Edward's retirement in 1866. In 1868 Trollope bought a third of the company for his son, Henry Merivale Trollope.
Arthur Waugh was managing director from 1902 to 1930. Later authors included Evelyn Waugh and his brother Alec Waugh; Evelyn's first novel, Decline and Fall (1928), and Scoop (1938) both appeared under the Chapman and Hall imprint.
In the 1930s the firm merged with Methuen, a combination that went on to form Associated Book Publishers in 1955. Thomson bought Associated Book Publishers in 1987, and in 1998 the business was sold to Wolters Kluwer, which passed its mathematics and statistics list to CRC Press. The name now survives as a science and technology imprint of Taylor & Francis, part of Informa since 2004.
Holding a copy? The first edition checker shows Chapman and Hall's practice for the year on your title page.
Identification
How to identify Chapman and Hall first editions
Authors
Books
Published by Chapman and Hall
Spot the first: P. 213: page number misprinted as 113 (first issue)
Spot the first: Part VI, front wrapper: a small printed slip reading 'Eighteenpence' is pasted over the printed one-shilling price (first issue wrapper of the final part)
Frequently asked questions
How do I identify a Chapman and Hall first edition?
- Decline and Fall (1928), first issue: the name "Martin Gaythorn-Brodie" (also spelled Gaythorne-Brodie) appears on page 168 and "Kevin Saunderson" on page 169. - Decline and Fall (1928): the original dust jacket is a green pictorial design. - Scoop (1938): the first-state dust jacket has "Daily Beast" on the front panel.
How many Chapman and Hall books does MyVolumes track?
We track 58 editions published by Chapman and Hall, 26 of them first editions, across 57 books.
Where these facts come from
- Chapman & Hall, Wikipedia, 2025 (en.wikipedia.org)
- First Edition Identification by Publisher, ILAB, 2010 (ilab.org)
- Decline and Fall (Lot 106, Christie's London, 28 September 2023), Very Important Lot (veryimportantlot.com)
- Decline and Fall: Two Editions on Offer, Evelyn Waugh Society, 2019 (evelynwaughsociety.org)
- Evelyn Waugh, Scoop, signed first edition, Sotheby's (sothebys.com)
- Evelyn Waugh, Scoop, signed first edition 1938, John Atkinson Books (johnatkinsonbooks.co.uk)
- Decline and Fall, Jonkers Rare Books (jonkers.co.uk)
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources listed. Checked 17 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.