Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
James, P. D.. Cover Her Face. Faber & Faber, 1962.
Price: US$288.60 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Most items will be dispatched the same or the next working day. A good condition first edition, lacks dust jacket. Some fading to covers and light rubbing to edges. Moderate foxing to covers and textblock. Binding is firm and secure. First edition first impression of her first novel. Please feel welcome to contact us for further information.
Seller: WeBuyBooks, Rossendale, LANCS, United Kingdom
JAMES, P.D.. COVER HER FACE. Faber, London, 1962.
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First edition of the author's first book. Recently rebound in full in black calf with Richard Wu hand made marbled end papers. Five raised bands to spine; burgundy leather labels with gilt lettering.Speckled decoration to page edges.Some spots of soil to a few pages and a previous owner's neat name to top of half-title page. New headband. Small chip missing from bottom corner of page 85, not affecting text. A SIGNED and DATED INSCRIPTION clipped from a later publication by Faber is laid in. A very SCARCE book in any condition now beautifully preserved for posterity.
Seller: THE USUAL SUSPECTS (IOBA), St. Catharines, ON, Canada
James, P. D.. Cover Her Face. Faber and Faber, London, 1962.
Price: US$2000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: P. D. James' (1920-2014) first novel and increasingly rare. First Printing. 254 pp. 8vo. Dust jacket is clean and sharp with a whisper of shelf wear, price clipped, now in mylar cover. Green cloth boards with gold titling to spine. An early price in ink on upper right corner of first free endpaper, small loss in center of rear first free endpaper where something has been removed as well as a 4-1/2' strip of glue residue along gutter, very clean within. Originally part of a hospital library with "Bothwell Hospital" stamped in read at head of text block, which would also explain the glue residue on the rear pastedown, no other markings or indications it is ex-library.
Seller: Craig Olson Books, ABAA/ILAB, Belfast, ME, U.S.A.
P d James. Cover Her Face - Correct First Edition - DUST WRAPPER ONLY. Faber, London, 1962.
Price: US$2501.21 + shipping
Description: DUST WRAPPER ONLY - A very good or better dust wrapper, free of any loss or tears. A touch of light creasing to the spine, but a surprisingly clean wrapper with no toning to the spine. or to the extremities. There is light splash marks to the reverse of the spine tips and to the rear inner flap fold. A nice dust wrapper that has the publishers printed price of 18s.net present. Would take a book should you have one.
Seller: West Hull Rare Books - P.B.F.A., Hull, YORKS, United Kingdom
JAMES, P. D.. Cover Her Face. Faber and Faber, London, 1962.
Price: US$3000.00 + shipping
Description: London: Faber and Faber, [1962]. First edition of the author's first novel. Octavo (7 1/4 x 4 7/8 inches; 185 x 125 mm). [1]-254, [2, blank] pp. Publisher's full green cloth. Spine lettered in gilt. Cloth with some browning to edges, and foxing to boards. Endpapers and text black edges with some foxing. In original dust jacket. Jacket with light toning and some minor chipping along edges. Jacket with a 1 3/8 -inch closed tear at fold. A few light marks to front panel of jacket. Overall a very good copy. Phyllis Dorothy James [P.D. James] was a British crime novelist and public servant. "Her literary career was launched when her agent, Elaine Greene, learned from Charles Monteith, a director of Faber and Faber, that they were seeking a replacement for their leading crime novelist, Cyril Hare, who had recently died. Greene sent him the manuscript of James's first novel, Cover Her Face (1962), which she had just read. The telephone call informing James that Faber had accepted it was, she remembers in her 'fragment of autobiography', Time to Be in Earnest (1999), 'one of the most exciting moments of my life. I knew that evening, as I pranced up and down the hall, that people do literally jump for joy' (p. 15). Faber's choice to fill the gap at the top of their crime list couldn't have been wiser. With fourteen novels between 1962 and 2008 featuring her poet-detective Adam Dalgliesh and two in 1972 and 1982 starring a young female private investigator, Cordelia Gray, P. D. James (the name she chose to write under because 'it was enigmatic and would look best on the book spine': Time to Be in Earnest, 11) won both high critical acclaim and an immensely wide readership. HBS 68781. $3,000.
Seller: Heritage Book Shop, ABAA, Beverly Hills, CA, U.S.A.
James, P. D.. Cover Her Face. Faber and Faber, London, 1962.
Price: US$3500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First edition, first printing. Very Good with cloth heavily faded at edges and moderately faded at spine. Foxing to end sheets and lightly to edge of page block. In a Very Good+ dust jacket with publisher's price intact, light edge wear, and a bit of rubbing at corners and spine ends, slight darkening to spine panel but no fading. The author's first published book.
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.
James, P.D.. Cover her Face. Faber & Faber, London, 1962.
Price: US$3750.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: First Edition, First Printing with the words "First published in mcmlxii" printed on the copyright page. A superlative copy bound in the original Publisher's bluish green cloth, with spine lettered in gilt. This ORIGINAL First Issue dustjacket is vibrant in color and has the publisher's 18s net printed price present on the front flap. The book is in excellent condition and appears UNREAD. The binding is tight and the boards are crisp with slight wear to the edges. The pages are clean with NO writing, marks or bookplates in the book. A stunning copy housed in a custom clamshell case.
Seller: Magnum Opus Rare Books, Missoula, MT, U.S.A.
James (P.D.). Cover Her Face. Faber & Faber, London, 1962.
Price: US$4296.96 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 18s. A great first edition of James's debut novel, an ingeniously plotted mystery that introduced readers to Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard, immediately ranked the author amongst the best crime writers. Cloth at spine very slightly sunned; jacket in very good condition.
Seller: Lycanthia Rare Books, Newark, NOTTS, United Kingdom
JAMES, P. D.. COVER HER FACE.. Faber and Faber, [1962]., London, 1962.
Price: US$5500.00 + shipping
Description: First edition. Author's first mystery. Introduces C.D.I. Adam Dalgliesh. Lightly foxed at top edges, else a fine, bright copy in dust jacket. Headstrong and beautiful, the young, beautiful and headstrong housemaid Sally Jupp is found strangled in her bed behind a bolted door. Policeman Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard must find her killer among a houseful of suspects, most of whom had very good reason to wish her ill. An exceptional copy!
Seller: BUCKINGHAM BOOKS, ABAA, ILAB, IOBA, GREENCASTLE, PA, U.S.A.
JAMES, P.D.. Cover Her Face. Faber & Faber, London, 1962.
Price: US$6731.10 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 8vo. Gilt lettered green pastel cloth in price clipped dust jacket. This copy signed by the author on the title page. The first mystery from the late Dame Phyllis. Book is edgeworn but bright. Jacket is complete with slight darkening at spine and general wear and rubbing especially to the extremities. Important mystery.
Seller: Karol Krysik Books ABAC/ILAB, IOBA, PBFA, Toronto, ON, Canada
JAMES P D. Cover Her Face. Faber, London, 1962.
Price: US$7696.04 + shipping
Description: First UK Edition. SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR. Publisher's original green cloth, titles to spine in gilt. With the dust jacket. Edges of boards just a little rubbed and dulled, a few small, white spots to the cloth, faint partial toning to the free end-papers. An excellent copy in the lightly-spotted dust wrapper jacket with a tape repair to the verso of the spine panel at the head of the spine. First edition, first impression of the authors first book, signed by the late P.D. James on the title page. A lovely copy, uncommon in such nice condition.
Seller: James M Pickard, ABA, ILAB, PBFA., LEICESTER, United Kingdom
James, P. D.. Cover Her Face. Faber, London, 1962.
Price: US$9500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: A very good first edition with a charming inscription by James on the front free endpaper to a close friend ("with love") and the humorous comment ("P.S. I wrote it! You bought it!!!). The author's first book. Housed in a custom-made set of slipcases.
Seller: Bookbid, Beverly Hills, CA, U.S.A.
James, P.D.. Cover her Face. Faber and Faber, London, 1962.
Price: US$10000.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: First Edition, First Printing. This copy is authentically SIGNED by P.D. James on a laid in signature. A beautiful copy. This ORIGINAL dustjacket is vibrant in color with NO chips or pieces missing. The book is in excellent shape and appears UNREAD. The binding is tight with NO cocking or leaning and the boards are crisp with minor wear to the edges. The pages are clean with NO writing, marks or bookplates in the book. A superb copy SIGNED by the author. Trades and offers considered.
Seller: Magnum Opus Rare Books, Missoula, MT, U.S.A.
James, P.D. Cover Her Face.. Faber and Faber, London, 1962.
Price: US$15000.00 + shipping
Description: First edition of the author's first book. Octavo, original green cloth. Lengthily signed by the author on the title page with the added words, "P.D. James He knew with a sudden and heart-lifting certainty that they would meet again. And when that happened the right words would be found." The inscription is the final lines of this novel. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with a touch of shelfwear. Jacket design by Charles Mozley. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. A superior example with a nice inscription from the author. "Cover Her Face was, James has said, written simply to try out her powers in fiction as a preliminary to attempting the novel proper. Its immediate success, however-snapped up at once by the prestigious British publishers Faber and Faber, and well reviewed on publication-caused her to try her hand again at the detective story, putting even more of the novels concern with the workings of the human mind, and indeed of the soul, into its pages. Already present in that first attempt were many of the hallmarks of her subsequent writing. There was the fastidious prose, beautifully accurate and not without complex plots Add to these qualities a gift for forward-looking storytelling and, above all, the creation of a detective you like and want to go on liking in Adam Dalgliesh, policeman and plausible poet" (Keating, 40).
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.