The Golden Spiders - Publication History

Publication History

• 1953, New York: Viking, October 26, 1953, hardcover

In his limited-edition pamphlet, Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I, Otto Penzler describes the first edition of The Golden Spiders: "Decorative gray boards, gray cloth spine with yellow lettering. Issued in a black, white and yellow dust wrapper."

In April 2006, Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine estimated that the first edition of The Golden Spiders had a value of between $200 and $350. The estimate is for a copy in very good to fine condition in a like dustjacket.

• 1953, Toronto: Macmillan, 1953, hardcover
• 1954, New York: Viking (Mystery Guild), January 1954, 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).

• 1954, London: Collins Crime Club, May 10, 1954, hardcover
• 1955, New York: Bantam, November 1955, paperback
• 1964, London: Fontana #964, 1964, paperback. Second printing, February 1970; third printing, July 1978; fourth printing, September 1981 (#6469)
• 1995, New York: Bantam Crimeline ISBN 0-553-27780-4 June 1, 1995, paperback
• 1995, Auburn, California: Audio Partners ISBN 1-57270-038-6, audio cassette (unabridged, read by Michael Prichard)
• 2008, New York: Bantam Dell Publishing Group (with Some Buried Caesar) ISBN 0-553-38567-4 September 30, 2008, trade paperback
• 2010, New York: Bantam Crimeline ISBN 978-0-307-75597-1 June 2, 2010, e-book