The Ripley Series Signed Set Reference
The five Tom Ripley novels — The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955), Ripley Under Ground (1970), Ripley’s Game (1974), The Boy Who Followed Ripley (1980), and Ripley Under Water (1991) — constitute one of the great character studies in crime fiction. Assembling a signed set of all five novels is among the most challenging and rewarding projects in crime fiction collecting.
The Five Novels
- The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955, Coward-McCann) — The introduction
- Ripley Under Ground (1970, Doubleday) — Art forgery in France
- Ripley’s Game (1974, Knopf) — Ripley recruits an amateur assassin
- The Boy Who Followed Ripley (1980, Lippincott & Crowell) — Ripley as mentor
- Ripley Under Water (1991, Knopf) — The final Ripley, published near Highsmith’s death
The Challenge
The primary difficulty is the first novel. The Talented Mr. Ripley in signed first edition is scarce and expensive, and the quality of signed copies varies considerably. The later four novels, while not common signed, are more accessible — Highsmith signed more frequently at European events in the 1970s–1990s than she had in the 1950s.
Publication note: Some Ripley novels were first published in European editions before the American editions listed above. True bibliographic completists may need to decide whether to pursue American firsts, UK firsts, or true firsts regardless of country.
Set Values
A complete signed set of all five Ripley novels would be valued at $5,000–$20,000+ depending on condition and specific editions. Such sets are extremely rare and may never have been formally assembled — the challenge is finding all five novels signed, from a writer who signed infrequently, across a forty-year publishing span.
Individual volumes range from $200–$1,000 (later novels) to $2,000–$6,000+ (The Talented Mr. Ripley).