THE BLACK PERIL - HOW TO IDENTIFY THE FIRST EDITION
by Roger Harris
An original John Hamilton dust jacket for’The Black Peril’
'The Black Peril' was the fifth
and final Biggles book published by John Hamilton before W. E. Johns changed
published to Oxford University Press.
The story itself had first been published in 'Modern Boy' Magazine in 10
parts under the title “Winged Menace” from issue 366 (dated 9th
February 1935) to issue 375 (dated 13th
April 1935). The first instalment
featured a picture on the cover of the magazine.
The book itself was published by John
Hamilton Ltd, in early March 1935, with the British Library receiving their
copy on 12th March 1935 (so it must have been published earlier than
this date). I have always wondered which
was published first, ‘The Black Peril’, or ‘Biggles Learns to Fly’ published by
the Boys’ Friend Library and dated 7th March 1935. I chose to list ‘The Black Peril’ as first as
that keeps the five Hamilton books as the first five Biggles books, although,
of course, the stories from Biggles Learns to Fly’ were published in ‘Modern
Boy’ from issue 323 dated 14th April 1934, so they would obviously
have been written earlier.
The Black Peril was published in at
least four editions by John Hamilton.
The first edition was in March 1935, with the next two editions
following later in 1935. I own a first
edition and I also own the fourth edition of ‘The Black Peril’ as it has a 35
page catalogue in the back dated Autumn 1936.
The price of all four of the John
Hamilton editions was 3 shillings and 6 pence and all editions of the book were
published as part of the John Hamilton "Ace" series. Just a brief note about "old
money". Prior to decimalisation
there were 12 pence to a shilling and 20 shillings to a pound - so there were
240 pence in a pound. 3 shillings and 6
pence was therefore 42 pence (pence was referred to by the letter "d"
in old money). On decimalisation, a
shilling became 5 new pence so in "new money" the book would have
cost 17.5 pence.
The pages of my first edition are
tinted black along the top. I am lucky
enough to own a signed one. It took me
over twelve years of collecting the works of W. E. Johns to find it. I bought it from a book dealer in England and
I received it on 31st July 2012.
I know the precise date as it was such a memorable occasion for me. I have displayed photographs of my original
first edition to show the dimensions of the book and also to show what the
first few pages look like to assist people in identifying first editions of the
book.
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Above you can
see three pictures showing the size of the first edition book cover. The book is 190 millimetres long and is 35
millimetres wide (my fourth edition copy is also 35 millimetres wide). The depth is just under 125 millimetres
from the back of the spine to the tip of the cover. You can also
see pictures showing the covers of the book and the first few pages of the
book showing the other titles in the “ACE” series listed. You will note that this copy is signed by
W. E. Johns himself. This is a 1930’s
signature with a looped top to the “J” of Johns. The half page title is toned through acid
migration, though the imprint of the signature remains ghosted onto the page
giving an indication of the age of the signature. This signed
first edition of ‘The Black Peril’ is possibly a unique survivor. I would love to hear from any collector out
there who has another. My book also
has an original John Hamilton dust wrapper which is virtually complete, with
just two minor chips. The dust jacket
lists 15 titles on the back which match the 17 titles in the ‘Ace’’ series
listed in the first edition of the book, with the exception of ‘War in the
Air’ and ‘The Black Peril itself. As with all
of the John Hamilton books, there is no publication date. |
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Although
generally speaking, it is hard to determine the different John Hamilton
editions of "The Black Peril", as the books were undated, the first
edition itself can be determined from the catalogue in the back of the
book. The first and second issues of the
‘The Black Peril’ contained the Autumn 1934 and Spring 1935 catalogues
respectively, but these catalogues were undated. Both catalogues had 32 pages. It was the Autumn 1934 catalogue that was put
into the FIRST EDITION and the first title advertised in that catalogue is
“Days on the Wing” by Captain the Chevalier Willy Coppens de Hout-Hulst. The
Spring 1935 catalogue was put into the second edition and the first title in
that catalogue is “Max Immelmann - Eagle of Lille” by Franz Immelmann. The book itself has blue boards and the
titles are only on the spine in gold gilt (although on my copy this has obviously
faded over the years)
Here is a
picture of the first page of the catalogue in the back of the original first
edition.
The picture
below is of the catalogue in the back of the SECOND edition, by way of
comparison.
The picture
below is of the catalogue in the back of the FOURTH edition, by way of
comparison – note the “Autumn 1936” date towards the top
And finally, here is a real treat for
Biggles fans! Did you know that the
ending of the original book “The Black Peril” differs from that published in
“The Winged Menace” - the Modern Boy version?
Well it does! Ginger talks about
how running away from home was the best thing he ever did. This was cut from the book. I suspect it may have been seen as
encouraging youngsters to run away from home, hence the deletion. You can read the original ending from the
last page of the story in ‘Modern Boy’ in the picture below. You will note that quite a lot of text was
cut out. You can see in the picture of the
book above, on page 222, it starts with “Never mind that; as long as I can fly
that’s all I care”. Well as a reference
point to how much text was cut out you will find that line in the penultimate
paragraph of the first column below. In
other words, virtually all of the second column below was cut out, bar the last
seven lines!