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Random House
The Original 43: Hardcover
All 43 of the original books were
published in at least one hardcover edition. For numbers 1 - 28, two separate hardcover editions were published simultaneously:
a Trade Edition for retail sales and a Gibraltar Library Binding (GLB)
Edition for library use. The two were nearly identical, featuring:
1) an octavo size of approximately 5 3/4" x 8 7/16" 2) pictorial
cover art depicting a scene from the story 3) seven black and white
internal illustrations 4) a colored bar near the top of the spine
that contained the words Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Series along with
the number of the book in the series.
Although the Trade and GLB Editions
were nearly identical, there were a few differences: 1) the GLB books had
a higher quality stitched binding to withstand the rigors of lending
2) most GLB covers had a smooth, semi-gloss finish, unlike the matte (and
later, glossy) finish of the Trade covers 3) there was an emblem
of an elephant on the GLB back covers, usually in the lower right corner
4) except for a limited number of exceptions,
no Three Investigators titles were listed on the GLB back covers, as was
standard on Trade books.
Beginning in 1979, the GLB Edition
represented the only hardcover publication for numbers 29 - 43. A
First Paperback Edition with identical cover art was published simultaneously
and available for retail sales in place of the Trade Edition.
In addition, internal illustrations were no longer provided (possibly to reduce cost) and Robert Adragna became the one exclusive artist for the series. For #29 The Mystery of the Sinister Scarecrow and
#30 The Secret of Shark Reef, the covers featured a silhouette
of Alfred Hitchcock's head in the upper right corner. That would
soon change, however.
Sadly, Alfred Hitchcock passed away
in April 1980. No new titles were published that year, but Random
House decided to continue the series with a new, fictional mentor for the
boys. Thus, the character Hector Sebastian was introduced in 1981's
#31
The Mystery of the Scar-Faced Beggar. A keyhole
design replaced the Hitchcock silhouette on the cover and the words in
the colored bar near the top of the spine
were changed to The Three Investigators Mystery Series. Along
with Robert Adragna's cover art, this format was then used for the remaining
twelve titles in the series.
Printing Identification
All of the titles in both hardcover
editions were only ever published as First Editions. There were never
any changes that would have required a Second Edition. On the other
hand, both editions of all of the books did have numerous printings.
For Trade titles
published before 1974, Random House did not overtly identify a book's printing,
but beginning with #21 The Secret of the Haunted Mirror, there is
a line of numbers near the bottom of the copyright page. If the line
of numbers is 1234567890, the book is a First Printing; if the line is
234567890, the book is a Second Printing, etc.
In general, identifying First Printings
for Trade numbers 1 - 20 is based upon the number of titles on the back
cover. New titles were published as a pair per year and as each new
pair was published, the back cover list was usually updated to include
the new books. "Usually" applies because numbers 17 and
18 are exceptions. Along with the back cover list, additional identifying
points must also be taken into consideration for numbers 1, 2, 13, 14, 15,
16 and 19. These points
are discussed in full in the following paragraphs where it is shown that,
either deliberately or because of an error, Random House reprinted numbers 1,
2, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 19 a very short time after their First Printing,
but with no change to their back cover lists.
To make life easy, the correct back
cover lists and noted additional points are tabulated in this First
Printing Guide, which can also be downloaded as a Microsoft Excel
spreadsheet and Adobe Acrobat
document.
Note: for many of numbers 1 - 20,
the First Printing Guide simply identifies the initial Issue a title
was available in. Just because a book meets the criteria, a First
Printing cannot be guaranteed because it could have gone through several printings before any changes were made. Nonetheless, if a book
meets the criteria it should be considered a First Printing because there
simply is no proof it is not.
It is nearly impossible to determine
the Second, Third, Fourth, etc. printings of Trade numbers 1 - 20.
There are some exceptions, but in general
only the approximate year of later printings can be determined by using
their back cover lists, as discussed below.
Trade numbers 1 -
20 reprinted in or after 1974 did not receive the printing numberline. Random House chose not to alter their copyright pages to include this.
Like their Trade counterparts, GLB
numbers 21 - 43 contained the copyright page numberline for easy printing
identification. Identifying First Printings of GLB numbers 1 - 20 is more difficult, but possible; this aspect of Three Investigators collecting will be documented here soon.
Back Cover List
The back cover list first appeared
on Trade books printed in early 1966, with the Second Printings of #3
The Mystery of the Whispering Mummy and
#4 The Mystery of the Green
Ghost. As discussed
above, the list was usually updated with each successive pair of titles
and is crucial for determining a Trade First Printing for numbers 1 - 20.
In addition, prior titles reprinted along with the new books also used
the updated list. Therefore, by noting the number of titles on the
back cover, the approximate reprinting year for a Trade book can be determined.
For example, a title reprinted in 1971 will list 16 titles on its back
cover as 1971 was the year that numbers 15 and 16 were published.
In 1972, Random House published First
Printings of #17 The Mystery of the Singing Serpent and #18 The
Mystery of the Shrinking House with a rather glaring error: their back
covers only listed to #16 The Mystery of the Nervous Lion, instead
of the correct title, Shrinking House.
Inner List
The inner page list first appeared
in 1966 with the First Printings of
#5 The Mystery of the Vanishing
Treasure and #6 The Secret of Skeleton Island. Most of
the subsequent titles also contained an inner list. For both the Trade and GLB Editions, the placement of the list was usually
in the rear of the book, just after the last page of text. Through
1976 the inner lists were not updated as a particular title was reprinted.
Beginning in 1977, however, the inner lists were usually updated, or in
some cases, even added. For example, earlier GLB printings of #3
The Mystery of the Whispering Mummy did not have an inner list, but
those printed after 1976 did.
An interesting aberration occurred
in the First Printing of both the Trade and GLB Editions of #19 The
Secret of Phantom Lake: the inner list consisted of just numbers
17 - 20. This was corrected for the Second Printing, which correctly
listed numbers 1 - 20. Except for the inner list difference, both
the First and Second Printings of Phantom Lake are identical, with
the same back cover list on the Trade Edition.
Endpapers
Illustrated blue
graveyard/spiderweb endpapers were used in both the Trade and GLB books
up through the First Printings of #21 The Secret of the Haunted Mirror
(1974)
and
#22 The Mystery of the Dead Man's Riddle (1974). With
the Second Printings of Haunted Mirror and Dead Man's Riddle
and
the First Printing of #23 The Mystery of the Invisible Dog (1975),
Random House switched to plain, white endpapers for the remainder of the
new titles. In addition, as a partial conversion, approximately half of the earlier titles reprinted in 1974 and 1975 also received the plain white endpapers. By 1976, however, the conversion was complete and the white endpapers were used exclusively.
A very rare variant of Invisible Dog's
Trade Edition First Printing can also be found
with the blue graveyard/spiderweb endpapers. Because of the incredible
rarity of this variant (I know of only two copies), I suspect it was an
error.
Because of the GLB Edition's stronger binding, their endpapers were attached in a
different manner and are nearly always found with the left and right sides
of the illustration
reversed.
Covers
Both hardcover editions used a case
binding in which the art and text/graphics were printed directly onto the
paper, which was then cut and glued to the boards to form the covers; neither
edition was ever available with a dust jacket. The matte finish initially
used for the Trade Edition often varied slightly from book to book, but
can generally be described as having a dull surface with a paper texture
much like that of a linen cloth. Books with this style
matte covers are often referred to as having "cloth boards".
Starting in what appears to be mid-1975,
Random House experimented with a new glossy finish for its Trade covers.
With this finish, the paper was smooth and covered with a very thin plastic
adhesive sheet. This new finish first appeared on late printings
of #19 The Secret of Phantom Lake and #20 The Mystery of Monster
Mountain (both list to #22 The Mystery of the Dead Man's Riddle
on their back covers). These two glossy titles were a most likely
a trial because an additional printing of Monster Mountain was also
available in late 1975 with the standard matte cover finish and listing
to #23 The Mystery of the Invisible Dog on its back cover.
Note: as with many of the earlier titles that were reprinted in 1975, these
three all still contained the graveyard/spiderweb endpapers.
The glossy finish became the standard
in 1976 with a very late printing of #11 The Mystery of the Talking
Skull (its back cover still listed to #23 The Mystery of the Invisible
Dog) and the year's two new books, #24 The Mystery of Death Trap
Mine and #25 The Mystery of the Dancing Devil. The finish
was then used through the end of the Trade Edition. Also, several more of the previous
titles were reprinted during 1977 - 1978 with the current glossy finish.
This is another example of Random House's partial conversion manufacturing
method.
The cover finish on the GLB books changed several times from 1964 - 1987. Initally, it was a somewhat smooth, semi-gloss paper finish. Then, from approximately 1965 - 1971, all new titles and earlier reprints used a matte cover
finish that was either nearly identical to the Trade Edition's or very dull and even more cloth-like. By 1972, however, the earlier semi-gloss finish returned and remained through the series' end.
A variant of the GLB semi-gloss finish can also occasionally be found
on Trade books that appear to have been printed in the early 1970s.
These books are clearly not GLB editions, as they have a glued binding
and back cover list and do not have the GLB elephant symbol on their back
covers. Why these books exist is anyone's guess, but I suspect it
may have simply been a case of the printer using whatever materials were
available at the moment.
ISBN
ISBN's were first assigned to every
one of the Three Investigators books in early 1971. This change necessitated
the reprinting of both editions of all fourteen titles in the series, even
#13
The Secret of the Crooked Cat and #14 The Mystery of the Coughing
Dragon, which just saw their First Printing a few months earlier in
late 1970. This series reprinting involved only placing the ISBN
in the lower right corner of the back cover of all fourteen titles and
updating the back cover list to Coughing Dragon for Trade numbers
1 - 12 that had not yet been reprinted. No changes were made to the
copyright page and because of this, two nearly identical printings exist
of Crooked Cat and Coughing Dragon, with the only difference
being the ISBN on the back cover. The first new titles to receive
ISBN's were #15 The Mystery of the Flaming Footprints and #16
The Mystery of the Nervous Lion in 1971 and both contained the ISBN
on their copyright pages.
Copyright Page
To meet the new Library of Congress
classification requirements, changes were slowly made to the copyright
pages of all the existing titles as they were reprinted from 1972 to 1975.
The changes involved the removal of the Library of Congress Catalog Card
Number line as well as the addition of new information including a summary,
author, series info, etc. As with the ISBN addition, the most recent
two titles,
#15 The Mystery of the Flaming Footprints and #16
The Mystery of the Nervous Lion, were also reprinted a few months after
their initial publication with only this minor change, creating two very
similar printings with identical back covers. The first new titles
to receive the revamped copyright page were #17 The Mystery of the Singing
Serpent and #18 The Mystery of the Shrinking House in 1972.
Bindings
As noted at the beginning, all GLB books had a high quality stitched binding. Interestingly enough, Trade Edition First Printings of #1 The Secret of Terror Castle and #2 The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot also used this stitched binding, but with uncut, one-piece endpapers, instead of the reversed two-piece endpapers found in almost all GLB books. With the Second Trade Printing of both Terror Castle and Stuttering Parrot, Random House switched to the standard glued binding. Imagine if Random House had left the stitched binding in place for the Trade Edition; we wouldn't have all those disintegrating hardcover books to deal with now!
Adragna GLB Reprints
Since Robert Adragna created new
cover art for the post-1978 paperback editions of numbers 1 - 28, late
printings of several of their GLB
counterparts can be found with his artwork. Please click here for detailed information.
Random House Reading Program
In the 1970s and '80s, numerous Three
Investigators books, in the GLB Edition, were part of the Random House
Reading Progam. Please click
here for detailed information.
Notes
There was a glaring error in the First
Printing of #2 The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot: the title page
simply stated "Illustrations by Ed Vebell." There was no reference
to Harry Kane (the actual illustrator, Ed Vebell was the cover artist)
or the author, Robert Arthur. The title page was corrected
with the Second Printing. Therefore, both the First and
Second Printings of Stuttering Parrot appear identical, with no back cover
list and wrap-around cover art. The word appear is critical: as mentioned above, the First Printing had a stitched binding and the Second Printing a glued binding.
There was also an error in the First Printing of #1 The Secret of Terror Castle: On page 47 of Ch 5, there is an mixup in the text. As with Stuttering Parrot, this was corrected with the Second Printing and both the First and Second Printings appear identical, with no back cover list, etc. Again, the First Printing had a stitched binding and the Second and glued binding.
For both hardcover editions of numbers
1 - 14, the artwork on the front wrapped across the spine and onto the
back cover. This was changed for numbers 15 and 16 to an illustrated
pattern and by number 17, the spines and back covers were just a solid
color. An unique abberation occurred with #2 The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot: the spine was changed to a solid yellow color for all copies printed after 1965. The reason
for the change is still unknown.
The First Printing of both the Trade and GLB Editions of #16 The Mystery of the Nervous Lion had a white '16' in the black bar on the spine, below the "Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Series" text. The '16' was changed to green on all subsequent printings. Click here for a comparison of the white and green versions.
From the Second Trade Printings of
#3
The Mystery of the Whispering Mummy and #4 The Mystery of the Green
Ghost
through the First Trade printings of #5 The Mystery of the
Vanishing Treasure and
#6 The Secret of Skeleton Island , the first book in the series was listed on the
back cover as The
Mystery
of Terror Castle. This also applied to the previous four
titles reprinted during that timeframe. This error was finally corrected
by the First Printings of #7 The Mystery of the Fiery Eye and #8
The Mystery of the Silver Spider.
The inner list (located in the rear of the book) used for the GLB titles reprinted in late 1978 contained an error. The last title in the list was correctly #28 The Mystery of the Deadly Double, but #27 The Mystery of the Magic Circle was skipped.
Collector's Notes
If a complete Random House hardcover collection is desired, the following
is available:
-
Numbers 1 - 23 in the Trade Edition
with a matte cover finish and internal illustrations
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Numbers 24 - 28 in the Trade Edition
with a glossy cover finish and internal illustrations
-
Numbers* 4, 5, 11, 14, 16, 17, 19 and
20 reprinted in the Trade Edition with a glossy cover finish and internal
illustrations
-
Numbers 1 - 28 in the GLB Edition with
internal illustrations
-
Numbers 29 - 43 in the GLB Edition;
no internal illustrations
-
Numbers* 4, 5, 13, 17, 20, 21, 22 and
23 reprinted in the GLB Edition with cover art by Robert Adragna and internal
illustrations
*More titles may exist in this format.
Most of the hardcover books are fairly
easy to acquire in all printings and are typically around $5.00 - $20.00
per book, depending on condition. Some are difficult to find, such as a few of the glossy
reprints (particularly numbers 11 and 16), First Printings of numbers
3 and 4, many of the GLB numbers 29 - 43 and all of the Adragna GLB reprints. These more scarce books
can get quite expensive, with collectors paying hundreds of dollars for
fine condition copies on online auctions such as eBay.
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This page last updated on 27-Feb-05
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