Michael Joseph Ltd, the London house founded in 1935 and part of Penguin since 1985. Its firsts carry a dated "First published" line with no later impressions or cheap editions listed beneath it.
"Joseph" here means Michael Joseph Ltd of London, whose imprint often appears in short as "M. Joseph".
Michael Joseph had worked as a literary agent at Curtis Brown, and his first book, published in 1923, was a guide to writing short stories for money. He set up Michael Joseph Ltd on 5 September 1935 as a subsidiary of Victor Gollancz Ltd, which put in £4,000. The two men disagreed often, and after Gollancz tried to suppress a book by Philip Gibbs on political grounds, Joseph bought out the Gollancz stake in 1938. Early authors on the list included H. E. Bates, C. S. Forester, Monica Dickens and Richard Llewellyn, and later ones included Paul Gallico, Richard Gordon and Derek Tangye, whose Minack Chronicles appeared as a series under the imprint.
Joseph died in 1958, and his widow Anthea Joseph rescued the company and later ran it. Penguin Books bought Michael Joseph Ltd in 1985 and kept it as an imprint, which Penguin has called its leading commercial imprint for fiction and non-fiction, covering women's fiction, crime, thrillers, cookery, memoir and lifestyle. The firm's series also included Mermaid Books, used for cheaper reissues of earlier successes such as H. E. Bates's The Purple Plain, and the Carfax Editions.
Holding a copy? The first edition checker shows Joseph's practice for the year on your title page.
Identification
How to identify Joseph first editions
What to look for
1930s to 1970s
A Michael Joseph first edition carries a "First published by Michael Joseph Ltd" line, with month and year, on the back of the title page. With that line alone, the copy is a first impression.
Later impressions are recorded beneath it with their own month and year (for example "Second impression January 1949" on The Purple Plain), so any further dated line means a reprint.
Cheaper reissues also add their own lines beneath the original date: The Purple Plain (first published November 1948) later shows a "First cheap edition" line and a Mermaid Books line. Such copies are not firsts.
Book club copies usually have no price on the jacket and may carry a small blind stamp in the lower right corner of the back cover; they are sometimes smaller and on cheaper paper than the trade edition.
1980s to 1990s
Penguin bought the firm in 1985.
UNVERIFIED: a number line was added to the printing statement in the late 1980s or early 1990s.
On a number line the lowest number present gives the printing, so a first printing keeps the 1.
Where the author is American, check whether a US edition came first before calling a Michael Joseph copy the true first.
1930s to 1970s - A Michael Joseph first edition carries a "First published by Michael Joseph Ltd" line, with month and year, on the back of the title page. With that line alone, the copy is a first impression. - Later impressions are recorded beneath it with their own month and year (for example "Second impression January 1949" on The Purple Plain), so any further dated line means a reprint. - Che
How many Joseph books does MyVolumes track?
We track 177 editions published by Joseph, 89 of them first editions, across 177 books.
