Murder By The Book - Publication History

Publication History

• 1951, New York: The Viking Press, October 12, 1951, hardcover

In his limited-edition pamphlet, Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I, Otto Penzler describes the first edition of Murder by the Book: "Yellow cloth, front cover and spine printed with red; rear cover blank. Issued in a yellow, red, black and white dust wrapper."

In April 2006, Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine estimated that the first edition of Murder by the Book (featured on the cover of the magazine) had a value of between $400 and $750. The estimate is for a copy in very good to fine condition in a like dustjacket.

• 1952, New York: Viking (Mystery Guild), January 1952, 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).

• 1952, London: Collins Crime Club, April 7, 1952, hardcover
• 1954, New York: Bantam #1252, August 1954, paperback
• London: Collins (White Circle), #295c, not dated, paperback
• 1964, New York: The Viking Press, Royal Flush: The Fourth Nero Wolfe Omnibus (with Fer-de-Lance and Three Witnesses), July 23, 1965, hardcover
• 1967, London: Fontana #1534, 1967, paperback
• 1974, London: Penguin Books, ISBN 978-0-14-003806-4 1974, paperback
• 1995, New York: Bantam ISBN 0-553-76311-3 September 1, 1995, paperback
• 2006, Auburn, California: The Audio Partners Publishing Corp., Mystery Masters ISBN 1-57270-536-1 June 28, 2006, CD (unabridged, read by Michael Prichard)
• 2010, New York: Bantam ISBN 978-0-307-75606-0 May 12, 2010, e-book