This article blends together a variety of topics I write about - including newspapers, short stories and anthologies. As the 2024 International Agatha Christie Festival nears, I'm writing about the short story Accident as it was discussed in detail at at the 2023 Festival in Torquay, Devon, when a panel of experts moderated by Kemper Donovan (author, podcaster) led a debate as to which was Agatha Christie's best short story. The four guest panelists were John Curran, Dr. Mark Aldridge, Jamie Bernthal-Hooker, and Victoria Dowd. All nominated three short stories, and once the overlapping titles were considered, a total of nine different stories were discussed. After debating and eliminating titles, the final two were then voted on by the audience and a winner was crowned. The short storys Accident and The Witness for the Prosecution were the final two standing, though the latter was chosen by the audience. Certainly Witness is a worthy winner. Yet as it is more well known and is one I have already written about several times (this link discusses its first printing), this article focuses on Accident - a lesser known short story. I provide details on where to find it to read, plus which printings are likely the most collectible.
The Final Nine Ranked.
But before we jump to the details, for those interested in the other nine short stories discussed, they were as follows and are shown here with their final ranking:
The Triangle at Rhodes, The Idol House of Astarte, Death by Drowning, The Affair at the Bungalow, The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, Murder in the Mews, The Man from the Sea, Accident, and The Witness for the Prosecution. With over 150 short stories written by Agatha, perhaps there's a couple in this list for you to enjoy that you are not familiar with.
Accident's Printing History:
First Appearance: Accident was first published in the Sunday Dispatch (UK) on September 22nd, 1929. It was titled as The Uncrossed Path and was accompanied by an illustration. Unfortunately the artist was not credited. The newspaper Sunday Dispatch printed numerous Agatha Christie stories over the years, though the paper ended when it merged with the Sunday Express in 1961.
It was republished in a newspaper - The Evening Standard (UK) - on September 9th, 1933, but now titled "Accident" and featuring a photographic artwork by Mendoza.
First Christie Book Appearance: This first printing of this story was in an anthology - My Best Thriller, printed by Faber and Faber (UK) in September 1933. As shown in the table of contents, this was the first time the story appeared in a book - now under the name Accident as just used in The Evening Standard newspaper. It also includes many other first printings in book form, including Dorothy Sayer's The Cyprian Cat, which later appeared in In the Teeth of Evidence (Victor Gollanz, UK, 1939). What is unique here is the statement that these stories were "Chosen by their own authors", implying Christie felt highly of her selected story.
The dust jacket shown here is from a slightly later printing. I've never seen the jacket for this the first printing. If any reader has it, please share an image so I can add it to the article. The book itself is easy to find and is worth £30 in Very Good condition. If jacketed, I would expect it to fetch closer to £200 given the typical values for vintage jacketed anthologies.
As I've documented before many Christie short story first editions are in anthologies - books that contain short stories from many different authors in a single volume as opposed to an omnibus collection which would be stories solely by Christie. I continue to seek to raise awareness of these anthologies and provide tips and insights into collecting them. For collectors of true first printings, these should be part of the collection. At the foot of the article is a list of the prior anthologies we've discussed with links to each.
First Christie-only Book Appearance: In June 1934, the story was compiled and published as part of the omnibus collection The Listerdale Mystery by Collins, London. It was not published as a Crime Club title but under Collins' Mystery imprint. It is priced 7/6 on the spine of the jacket.
Unlike other Christie's of this period, the cloth is a plum colour, with silver lettering in the spine. This book is scarce in Very Good condition as often the cloth is faded on the spine and stained on the covers. Expect to pay up to £1,000 for the book (assuming the cloth is bright on the spine as well). It is exceptionally rare in it's original dust jacket and worth up to £25,000 for a Very Good jacket (complete, with no significant flaws such as chips or large tears).
It's first appearance in a US collection was in 1948 when it was included in The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories. This book is fairly uncommon and would be worth $1,000 in Very Good condition with a Very Good jacket.
First Magazine: In the UK, the story was published in The Thriller magazine on December 15th, 1934. Priced 2d originally, this magazine does show for sale occasionally but would now be worth £25. Patience will be needed.
In the US, the story was not published in a magazine until 1943 when it was included in the Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. This is quite common and generally be found for $25.
First Paperback: Collins published a paperback version of The Listerdale Mystery in September 1938, which contained all the same stories as the hardback, including Accident. This was in their large format paperback series, not the smaller White Circle style. Priced 6d & numbered 321 on the spine, it featured the same torch cover art as the first edition book.
This is a very scarce paperback that I would expect could be valued anywhere from £250 and up since earlier this year a similar paperback (The Mysterious Mr. Quin No. 174) sold at auction (Forum, UK, February 2024) for £260. Low costs options today would be any paperback of The Listerdale Mystery as it will be in that collection. The book has been published many times by Pan, Fontana and Collins White Circle. There are plenty of used copies available in all the typical online places.
The Playscript of "Accident".
Margery Vosper faithfully dramatised the short story into the one act play Tea for Three. Margery was the sister of Frank Vosper who had previously adapted Agatha Christie's Philomel Cottage into the play Love From a Stranger.
Tea for Three was published in Nelson’s Theatrecraft of plays, book 2 (UK) in 1939 and priced Two Shillings net. In the USA, it was also published in 1939 by Baker's Plays (Boston). These are both very scarce and would likely fetch £100 or more if found for sale.
Prior Anthology Reviews:
The Best Detective Stories of the Year, Faber & Gwyer, UK, 1929: Contains the first Miss Marple story in book form (link).
Best Detective Stories of the Year - 1929, Faber & Faber, UK, 1930: Contains two short stories first printings - S.O.S. and The Third Floor Flat (link). Â
Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror: 2nd Series (1931), Victor Gollanz, UK, 1931. Contains the Poirot short story The Adventure fo the Clapham Cook (link).
Many Mysteries, Rich & Cowan, UK, 1933: contains the first book printing of the Hercule Poirot story The Second Gong (link).
The Hospital Centenary Gift Book, Harrap & Co, UK, 1935: Contains the first UK hardback printing of The Veiled Lady (link).
Sporting Blood, Little, Brown & Co, Boston, USA, 1942: Contains the first stand-alone hardback printing of Poirot's The Chess Problem (link).
Fifth Mystery Book, Farrar & Rinehart, NY, USA, 1944: Contains the first hardback printing of Tape Measure Murder (link).
20th Century Detective Stories, World Publishing Co, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, 1948: Contains the first hardback printings of two stories - The Double Clue and The Perfect Maid (link).
Podcasts
I expect many of you are already regular listeners to the All About Agatha podcast, hosted by Kemper Donovan. Earlier this year Kemper and I met to record a podcast all about the world of collecting. That podcast is now live (July 13, 2024 release date). It is rather long - we easily got carried away chatting about our passion and love of Agatha so you may have to break up our two hour chat into bit-sized chunks. You can access it at your favourite podcast site or via this link. I also know many of you have listened to the podcast "Tea and Murder" - part interview show and part book club - that I recently participated on. Here's that link.
2024 International Agatha Christie Festival:
A few tickets remain available for my presentation at the 2024 International Agatha Christie Festival. I hope to see you there. For details or to obtain tickets go to:Â Festival Link.
Closing.
As I usually do, I've likely missed a few things or made a few errors - so do get in contact with me if there's an improvement to be made to this article. I view all my articles as collaborative efforts and want them to be an accurate resource for collectors. I have lots more articles I'm working on but if there's something you'd like me to consider do let me know by writing to me at: collectchristie@gmail.comÂ
Happy Hunting!
Comments