If Death Ever Slept - Publication History

Publication History

  • 1957, New York: The Viking Press, October 25, 1957, hardcover
In his limited-edition pamphlet, Collecting Mystery Fiction #10, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part II, Otto Penzler describes the first edition of If Death Ever Slept: "Blue cloth, front cover and spine printed with darker blue; rear cover blank. Issued in a mainly black dust wrapper."
In April 2006, Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine estimated that the first edition of If Death Ever Slept had a value of between $200 and $350. The estimate is for a copy in very good to fine condition in a like dustjacket.
  • 1957, London, Ontario: Macmillan, 1957, hardcover
  • 1958, New York: Viking (Mystery Guild), January 1958, hardcover
The far less valuable Viking book club edition may be distinguished from the first edition in three ways:
  • The dust jacket has "Book Club Edition" printed on the inside front flap, and the price is absent (first editions may be price clipped if they were given as gifts).
  • Book club editions are sometimes thinner and always taller (usually a quarter of an inch) than first editions.
  • Book club editions are bound in cardboard, and first editions are bound in cloth (or have at least a cloth spine).
  • 1958, London: Collins Crime Club, September 18, 1958, hardcover
  • 1959, New York: Bantam #A-1961, August 1959, paperback
  • 1960, London: Fontana, 1960, paperback
  • 1971, Leicester, England: F.A. Thorpe, Ltd., December 1971
  • 1973, New York: Viking Press, Three Trumps: A Nero Wolfe Omnibus (with The Black Mountain and Before Midnight), April 1973, hardcover
  • 1995, New York: Bantam Books ISBN 0-553-76296-6 January 2, 1995, paperback
  • 2002, Auburn, California; The Audio Partners Publishing Corp., Mystery Masters ISBN 0-553-76296-6 March 12, 2002, audio cassette (unabridged, read by Michael Prichard)
  • 2010, New York: Bantam Crimeline ISBN 978-0-307-75600-8 May 12, 2010, e-book

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