Might As Well Be Dead - Publication History

Publication History

• 1956, New York: Viking Press, October 26, 1956, hardcover

In his limited-edition pamphlet, Collecting Mystery Fiction #10, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part II, Otto Penzler describes the first edition of Might as Well Be Dead: "Bright blue-green boards, chartreuse cloth spine, printed with blue-green; front and rear covers blank. Issued in a mainly blue pictorial dust wrapper."

In April 2006, Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine estimated that the first edition of Might as Well Be Dead 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, New York: Viking Press (Mystery Guild), February 1957, 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).

• 1957, London: Collins Crime Club, 1957, hardcover
• 1958, New York: Bantam #A1795, July 1958, paperback
• 1971, New York: The Viking Press, Three Aces: A Nero Wolfe Omnibus (with Too Many Clients and The Final Deduction), May 10, 1971, hardcover
• 1973, London: Fontana, April 1973
• 1995, New York: Bantam Books ISBN 0-553-76303-2 January 2, 1995, paperback
• 2004, Auburn, California: The Audio Partners Publishing Corp., Mystery Masters ISBN 1-57270-414-4 November 2004, audio CD (unabridged, read by Michael Prichard)
• 2010, New York: Bantam ISBN 978-0-307-75604-6 April 28, 2010, e-book