- Hutchinson did not mark its first editions in any way, as it told H. S. Boutell; a dealer's review of Boutell's survey ranks it among the least helpful publishers for collectors.
Publisher · founded 1887 · London
Hutchinson
Hutchinson is a London publisher founded in 1887, publisher of Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger novels and first publisher of Forsyth's The Day of the Jackal, now part of Penguin Random House.
- Editions tracked
- 247
- First editions
- 156
- Books
- 245
- Years
- 1883 to 2019
Hutchinson is a publisher based in London, founded in 1887. We track 247 editions it published between 1883 and 2019, 156 of them first editions across 245 books. How Hutchinson marked its first editions is set out below, with a checker for the year on your title page.
About Hutchinson
Hutchinson is a London publisher founded in 1887 by George Hutchinson as Hutchinson & Co.; since 2021 it has been part of the Hutchinson Heinemann imprint in the Cornerstone division of Penguin Random House.
Sir George Hutchinson's son Walter Hutchinson later ran the business and in 1929 dropped its magazines to concentrate on books. Hutchinson published Arthur Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger novels, and its list also took in E. F. Benson's ghost stories, H. G. Wells, the English translations of Vladimir Nabokov's Camera Obscura (1936) and Despair, and the first English edition of Karl Popper's The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1959). It published the first edition of Frederick Forsyth's The Day of the Jackal on 7 June 1971, two months before the American edition.
In 1985 Hutchinson merged with Century Publishing to form Century Hutchinson, which joined the British Random House group in 1989 and briefly traded as Random Century. Penguin Random House has been wholly owned by Bertelsmann since 2019, and in 2021 Hutchinson was combined with William Heinemann and Windmill as Hutchinson Heinemann, whose authors include Robert Harris, Sebastian Faulks and Amor Towles.
Holding a copy? The first edition checker shows Hutchinson's practice for the year on your title page.
Identification
How to identify Hutchinson first editions
Authors
Books
Published by Hutchinson
Frequently asked questions
How do I identify a Hutchinson first edition?
- Hutchinson did not mark its first editions in any way, as it told H. S. Boutell; a dealer's review of Boutell's survey ranks it among the least helpful publishers for collectors.
How many Hutchinson books does MyVolumes track?
We track 247 editions published by Hutchinson, 156 of them first editions, across 245 books.
Where these facts come from
- Hutchinson (publisher), Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- Hutchinson Heinemann, Penguin Books UK (penguin.co.uk)
- The Day of the Jackal, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- First Editions of Today and How to Tell Them (3rd edn), H. S. Boutell, Internet Archive, 1949 (archive.org)
- Boutell's First Editions of To-Day, Ash Rare Books, 2019 (ashrarebooks.com)
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources listed. Checked 17 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.