Three Blind Mice and Other Stories is a collection of short stories written by Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1950. The first edition retailed at $2.50.
Stories from the collection later appeared in the British collections The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (1960), Poirot’s Early Cases (1974), Miss Marple’s Final Cases and Two Other Stories (1979), and Problem at Pollensa Bay (1992). However, the title story, an alternate version of the play The Mousetrap, has not been published in book form in the UK.
Publication history
- 1950, Dodd, Mead and Company, hardback, 250 pp.
- 1952, Dell Books, paperback, 224 pp. (Dell number 633)
- 1960, Dell Books, paperback, as The Mousetrap and Other Stories (Dell number D354)
First publication of stories in the US
- The Adventure of Johnny Waverly: June 1925 (Volume XLI, Number 2) issue of the Blue Book Magazine with an uncredited illustration.
- The Love Detectives: October 30, 1926 (Volume XIX, Number 3) issue of Flynn’s Weekly under the title “At the Crossroads” with uncredited illustrations.
- The Third Floor Flat: January 5, 1929 (Volume CVI, Number 6) issue of Detective Story Magazine under the title “In the Third Floor Flat” with an uncredited illustration.
- Four and Twenty Blackbirds: November 9, 1940 (Volume 106, Number 19) issue of Collier’s magazine with illustrations by Mario Cooper.
- Strange Jest: November 2, 1941 issue of This Week under the title “A Case of Buried Treasure.”
- The Tape-Measure Murder: November 16, 1941 issue of This Week with an illustration by Arthur Sarnoff.
- The Case of the Caretaker: July 5, 1942 edition of the Chicago Sunday Tribune.
- The Case of the Perfect Maid: September 13, 1942 edition of the Chicago Sunday Tribune.
- Three Blind Mice: May 1948 (Volume 124, Number 5) issue of Cosmopolitan magazine with uncredited illustrations.
Appearances in UK collections
The four Miss Marple stories appeared in the 1979 collection Miss Marple’s Final Cases and Two Other Stories. “The Third Floor Flat” and “The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly” appeared in the 1974 collection Poirot’s Early Cases, while “Four and Twenty Blackbirds” appeared in the 1960 collection The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding. “The Love Detectives” appeared in the 1991 collection Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other Stories.
Three Blind Mice and Other Stories – First Edition Book Identification Guide
The books are listed in the order of publication. While the majority of Agatha Christie’s books were first published in the UK. There are many titles that were first published in the US. The title of the book may differs from the UK edition in some cases.
| Year | Title | Publisher | First edition/printing identification points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | Three Blind Mice | Dodd, Mead & Co, NY, [1950] | First edition. Copyright 1948 stated on the copyright page. No statement of later printings Red cloth lettered in silver. No UK edition. |
Note about Book Club Editions (BCE) and reprints:
UK: You can see statements of later reprint dates or of book club on the copyright page.
US: The US reprint publishers usually use the same sheets as the first edition and are harder to identify by looking at the title page or the copyright page. One may identify a BCE by looking at the DJ, which doesn’t have a price on top of the front flap and a “Book Club Edition” imprint at the bottom. If the dust jacked is clipped at both the top/bottom of the front flap. You can safely assume it’s a BCE . If the book is missing the dust jacket. Later BCE editions can be identified by its plain boards, while first printings are issued in quarter cloth.
Please refer to the gallery for detailed images of true first edition bindings and dust jackets.
Three Blind Mice and Other Stories – First Edition Dust Jacket Identification Guide
First edition bindings and various dust jacket printings identification.
