CHRISTIE, Agatha (1890-1976). The Hound of Death and other stories. London: for The Crime Club by Collins, [1939].

First trade edition, third printing with the cancel title and in the very rare Collins dust-jacket priced at four shillings '4/-net'. We have been unable to trace another example of this scarce dust-jacket. This collection of short stories includes the first appearance in print of ‘The Witness for the Prosecution’, which was later adapted by Agatha Christie into a successful play.

'The title story, "The Hound of Death", if it were written today would be classified as science fiction, although at the time of its publication it must have seemed to be more in the tradition of M. R. James and his tales of the occult. In an interview with Nigel Dennis in 1956, Agatha Christie professed a keen interest in science fiction. Had she been a few years younger, she would probably have made major contributions to that particular genre' (C. Osborne, The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie, 1999, p. 106). This might be one of the reasons that Odhams Press rather than Collins first published this collection of short stories, as tales of ‘mystery and the supernatural’ did not at first appear to Collins to fit alongside their other Christie Crime Club titles and they do not feature Poirot or Miss Marple.

When first published by Odhams Press in 1933 this book was only available to the public by collecting a series of coupons from the weekly magazine The Passing Show in October 1933 and sending them with a payment of seven shillings to the publisher. Collins then took over the rights of publication and issued the first trade edition in February 1935 using remaindered 1933 Odhams sheets and issued with a Collins Crime Club title and bound in orange cloth with The Crime Club imprint at the foot of the spine.

Octavo. Original green cloth (some browning to endpapers, extremities a trifle rubbed, spine ends sunned commensurate with loss from dust-jacket, faint spotting to edges, small mark to upper cover); original pictorial dust-jacket priced '4/-net' on upper flap (some tears and wear with loss at spine ends, more at foot with loss of publisher’s name, upper panel with tear and small loss, edges with slight chipping, spine and lower panel somewhat dust-stained).