In The Best Families - Publication History

Publication History

  • 1950, New York: The Viking Press, September 2, 1950, hardcover
In his limited-edition pamphlet, Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I, Otto Penzler describes the first edition of In the Best Families: "Yellow cloth, front cover and spine printed with purple; rear cover blank. Issued in a purple, black and white dust wrapper."
In April 2006, Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine estimated that the first edition of In the Best Families had a value of between $300 and $500. The estimate is for a copy in very good to fine condition in a like dustjacket.
  • 1950, abridged in The Montreal Gazette and The Newark Evening News during 1950
  • 1951, New York: Viking (Mystery Guild), January 1951, 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).
  • 1951, London: Collins Crime Club, April 1951, hardcover (as Even in the Best Families)
  • 1953, New York: Bantam #1173, October 1953, paperback
  • 1961, New York: The Viking Press, Five of a Kind: The Third Nero Wolfe Omnibus (with The Rubber Band and Three Doors to Death), July 10, 1961, hardcover
  • 1964, London: Panther #1752, October 1964, paperback
  • 1974, New York: The Viking Press, Triple Zeck: A Nero Wolfe Omnibus (with And Be a Villain and The Second Confession), April 5, 1974, hardcover
  • 1980, London: Collins Crime Club Jubilee Edition, 1980, hardcover
  • 1992, London: Scribners ISBN 0-356-20107-4, 1992, hardcover (introduction by Julian Symons)(as Even in the Best Families)
  • 1995, New York: Bantam Crime Line ISBN 0-553-27776-6 February 1995, paperback, Rex Stout Library edition with introduction by Patricia Sprinkle
  • 2000, Auburn, California: The Audio Partners Publishing Corp., Mystery Masters ISBN 1-57270-146-3 July 2000, audio cassette (unabridged, read by Michael Prichard)
  • 2010, New York: Bantam ISBN 978-0-307-75601-5 July 21, 2010, e-book

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