The Moth.

An interesting copy, bibliographically. The inscription is dated 12.12.’49. Hubin’s bibliography of crime fiction states that the US edition was published in 1948, the UK edition in 1950. No mention is made of an Australian edition (not unusual, since the concentration is on London and New York). However, in the case of “The Moth”, both UK and Australian editions were published by Robert Hale, and both were printed in Australia by Holland & Stephenson in Sydney. The Australian edition clearly states “First published in Australia in 1949” on the copyright page. The dustjacket carries no price notation. The British issue states “First published in Great Britain”, but is undated. Its dustjacket carries a price of 10s.6d.net. This particular copy is possibly one of the British copies which somehow got mixed with the Australian ones, and missed the boat in late 1949. The British copies would not have arrived in the UK until early 1950, which explains Hubin’s date. The Australian editions would have preceded the British ones, therefore, by a couple months. The interesting feature of this is the printing reversal; up until the mid-sixties many of Australia’s books were printed in England and sent out here, often in slightly different forms. The opposite practice is quite uncommon.