first bantam books mmpb printing and first published edition,
preceded only by a merkin book club edition h/cvr for sale only to doubleday book clubs' members.
cover art by r. shore (art is signed, uncredited)
cat# T8276
cover price $1.50
320pp. including titles, indicia etc, end pp. advertising
copies of one or more of these printings imported by transworld publishers ltd. and distributed in the uk-of-gb'n'ni and republic of ireland (and prob'ly in at least some of western europe) overprinted with the uk price (? of c. 50p - 75p ?) in black on rear cover.
at least seven near-identical printings with this cat#, cover art, etc.
refer to indicia to see which printing is held. first reprint may've been before publication.
cover price rose to $1.95 (r. shore's cover art retained) with eighth or ninth printing:
11/1978 9th printing
cover art retained
cover price $1.95
isbn 0-553-12673-3
cat# 12673
320pp. including 6 uncounted unnumbered pp. titles, indicia etc; 2 end pp: 1p. about the author, 1p. advertising "out of this world!" listing 15 bantam books sf & fantasy titles with cat#s, authors and prices, plus mail-order form.
copies of this printing were imported by transworld publishers ltd. and distributed in the uk-of-gb-and-norn-iron and republic of ireland (at least, prob'ly also western europe) with "85p" uk price letter-press printed on back cover, towards top spine corner.
4/1982 10th printing
cover art by paul lehr
isbn 0-553-14438-3
cat# 14438
cover price $2.95
which may warrant regarding by bookcat as bantam books, inc.'s second edition. . .
bantam books near-identical 11th & 12th mmpb printings follow, the former in 1982, with
cover art by paul lehr retained
refer to indicia publishing history number-string line to check which is held.
serialised as "project 40" in galaxy vol.33 #3, 11-12/1972 (tandem books bre no.4), vol.33 #4, 1-2/1973 (tandem books bre no.5), vol.33 #5, 3-4/1973 (tandem books bre no.6) (tandem books bre numbering was confused: go by the merkin masthead date and vol-no.)
transworld publishers corgi books imprint p/b first printing, first uk p/b edition
cover art by bruce pennington
cover price £1.75 (no overseas territories prices)
320pp. (check) including titles, indicia etc, end pp. advertising
i'm not sure transworld publishers ever reprinted their corgi books p/b edition: they definitely imported their merkin sister company's bantam books mmpb both before and after their own p/b's availability, distributing it with a uk price letterpress printed upon the cover, which uk price varied with the different merkin mmpb printings' importations (this comment is from another edition of this book)
new english library first printing, first uk edition, first trade h/cvr edition°
(° preceded only by a doubleday book club nelson doubleday h/cvr, which was available only to doubleday book club members)
cover (d-j) art uncredited, unsigned sfaik as-yet unattributed
cover (d-j) price £2.95
280pp? including titles, indicia etc, end pp.
bound with endpapers between covered boards, issued in full-colour-printed paper dust-jacket
it's unclear why new english library did not publish a uk p/b, having presumably obtained the uk (uk-of-gb'n'ni & commonwealth excluding canadada, etc.) english language volume rights licence from bantam books: but they did not.
transworld publishers ltd. were able to import and distribute copies of the bantam books, inc. merkin mmpb, apparently perfectly legally, both before and during the duration of the nel licence, as well as after its determination, and to publish their own uk p/b as a corgi books p/b. (this comment is from another edition of this book)
isbn on the first printing of the nel imprint h/cvr seen reported as 0-450-02137-8, as opposed to the number currently in the isbn10 field:
this needs checking -
- n.b. it is quite possible the book bears two different (i)sbns as new english library did for a while seem somewhat confused about reconciling the (i)sbn system and their cat#ing system. (this comment is from another edition of this book)