The Doorbell Rang - Publication History

Publication History

  • 1965, New York: The Viking Press, October 8, 1965, hardcover
In his limited-edition pamphlet, Collecting Mystery Fiction #10, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part II, Otto Penzler describes the first edition of The Doorbell Rang: "Reddish marbleized boards, black cloth spine; front and rear covers blank; spine printed with red and white. Issued in a mainly gold-colored dust wrapper."
In April 2006, Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine estimated that the first edition of A Right to Die had a value of between $100 and $200. The estimate is for a copy in very good to fine condition in a like dustjacket.
  • 1965, New York: Viking (Mystery Guild), December 1965, 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).
  • 1965, Toronto: Macmillan, 1965, hardcover
  • 1966, London: Collins Crime Club, January 3, 1966, hardcover
  • 1966, Argosy, April 1966 (abridged)
  • 1966, New York: Bantam #F-3254, October 1966, paperback
  • 1968, London: Fontana, 1968, paperback
  • 1976, London: Penguin, The First Rex Stout Omnibus ISBN 0-14-004032-3 (with The Second Confession and More Deaths Than One) 1976, paperback
  • 1992, New York: Bantam Crime Line ISBN 0-553-23721-7 July 1992, paperback, Rex Stout Library edition with introduction by Stuart Kaminsky
  • 1997, Burlington, Ontario: Durkin Hayes Publishing, DH Audio ISBN 0-88646-443-9 August 1997, audio cassette (abridged, read by Saul Rubinek)
  • 2000, Pleasantville, New York: Reader's Digest Association, Inc. (ImPress) ISBN 0-7621-8857-X 2000, hardcover
  • 2010, New York: Bantam Crimeline ISBN 978-0-307-75589-6 June 9, 2010, e-book

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