Murder On The Orient Express - Publication History

Publication History

• 1934, Collins Crime Club (London), January 1, 1934, Hardcover, 256 pp
• 1934, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), 1934, Hardcover, 302 pp
• c.1934, Lawrence E. Spivak, Abridged edition, 126 pp
• 1940, Pocket Books (New York), Paperback, (Pocket number 79), 246 pp
• 1948, Penguin Books, Paperback, (Penguin number 689), 222 pp
• 1959, Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollins), Paperback, 192 pp
• 1965, Ulverscroft Large-print Edition, Hardcover, 253 pp ISBN 0-7089-0188-3
• 1968, Greenway edition of collected works (William Collins), Hardcover, 254 pp
• 1968, Greenway edition of collected works (Dodd Mead), Hardcover, 254 pp
• 1978, Pocket Books (New York), Paperback
• 2006, Poirot Facsimile Edition (Facsimile of 1934 UK first edition), September 4, 2006, Hardcover, 256 pp ISBN 0-00-723440-6

The story's first true publication was the US serialisation in six instalments in the Saturday Evening Post from September 30 to November 4, 1933 (Volume 206, Numbers 14 to 19). The title was Murder in the Calais Coach, and it was illustrated by William C. Hoople.

The UK serialisation appeared after book publication. The story appeared in three instalments in the Grand Magazine, in March, April, and May, 1934 (Issues 349 to 351). This version was abridged from the book version (losing some 25% of the text), was without chapter divisions, and named the Russian princess as Dragiloff instead of Dragomiroff.

Advertisements in the back pages of the UK first editions of The Listerdale Mystery, Why Didn't They Ask Evans and Parker Pyne Investigates claimed that Murder on the Orient Express had proven to be Christie’s best-selling book to date and the best-selling book published in the Collins Crime Club series.