Faber & Faber is an independent London publisher, named in 1929 by Geoffrey Faber, with T. S. Eliot on its board and a famous list of poets and novelists.
Faber & Faber is a publisher based in London, founded in 1929. We track 480 editions it published between 1929 and 2024, 217 of them first editions across 477 books. How Faber & Faber marked its first editions is set out below, with a checker for the year on your title page.
About Faber & Faber
Faber & Faber is an independent London publishing house, which took the name in 1929 when Geoffrey Faber's partnership with the Gwyers ended, and best known for its poetry list and for authors from T. S. Eliot to Kazuo Ishiguro.
The firm grew out of the Scientific Press, owned by Sir Maurice and Lady Gwyer. In 1925 the Gwyers and Geoffrey Faber, a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, set up Faber and Gwyer. When the partners went separate ways in 1929, Faber chose the name Faber and Faber for the firm. T. S. Eliot came in as literary adviser, sat on the 1929 board, and the firm published his review The Criterion; his Poems 1909-1925 appeared in the first season.
Faber became the home of W. H. Auden, Samuel Beckett, Philip Larkin, Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney, and of novelists including William Golding, Milan Kundera and Kazuo Ishiguro. The firm nearly turned down Golding's Lord of the Flies, whose 1954 first printing ran to 3,000 copies, and Eliot declined Orwell's Animal Farm.
The house moved from 24 Russell Square to 3 Queen Square, then to Bloomsbury House in 2009 and to The Bindery in Hatton Garden in 2023. Its American arm was sold to Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1998; that partnership ended in 2015, after which Faber distributed directly in the US. It remains independent and is a member of the Independent Publishers Caucus.
Holding a copy? The first edition checker shows Faber & Faber's practice for the year on your title page.
Identification
How to identify Faber & Faber first editions
What to look for
A Faber first edition has a single "First published" line on the back of the title page with no reprint dates beneath it; on older books the year in that line is written in Roman numerals, as in "First published in mcml".
Allen and Patricia Ahearn's publisher list for ILAB gives the "First published" statement, says later printings are noted, and says the year was in Roman numerals before the switch to Arabic. Several unrelated dealers offering 1950 Faber firsts describe the same thing: "First published in mcml" on the verso and no other printings listed.
What to check:
The "First published" line on the reverse of the title page.
Nothing beneath it. Any further dated line records a later impression.
The imprint. The firm traded as Faber and Gwyer until 1929.
Traps
Roman numerals on more than one line. A reprint keeps the first-publication date and adds its own dated line beneath, and a second Roman-numeral date is easy to skim past. Convert every date on the page.
Faber and Gwyer titles. A book first issued before 1929 came out under the Faber and Gwyer name, so a copy of such a title with a Faber and Faber imprint is a later printing or edition.
Book club copies. A jacket with no printed price is usually a book club edition rather than the trade first.
Examples
Lord of the Flies (1954): a first impression should show the single first-publication line with no later printing beneath it.
T. S. Eliot's The Cocktail Party (1950): dealers describe the first impression as reading "First published in mcml" on the reverse of the title page, with no other printings listed.
A Faber first edition has a single "First published" line on the back of the title page with no reprint dates beneath it; on older books the year in that line is written in Roman numerals, as in "First published in mcml". Allen and Patricia Ahearn's publisher list for ILAB gives the "First published" statement, says later printings are noted, and says the year was in Roman numerals before the swit
How many Faber & Faber books does MyVolumes track?
We track 480 editions published by Faber & Faber, 217 of them first editions, across 477 books.
Sources
Where these facts come from
First Edition Identification by Publisher, ILAB (Allen and Patricia Ahearn), 2010 (ilab.org)
Faber first editions quoting "First published in mcml", AbeBooks search results, 2026 (abebooks.co.uk)
Identifying Book Club Editions, Independent Online Booksellers Association (ioba.org)
When is a first edition not a first edition?, Existential Ennui, 2010 (existentialennui.com)
