3 Jack Williamson first editions are documented on this shelf, from The Legion of Space (1947) to The Humanoids (1949) across 2 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Jack Williamson title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.
Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Jack Williamson copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- The Legion of Space — 1947 · Fantasy PressFirst book edition: Fantasy Press, Reading, Pennsylvania, 1947 — Williamson's first book. "First Edition" is stated on the copyright page with no further printing noted; L. W. Currey catalogues the trade issue as "First edition so stated on copyright page," and independent dealer descriptions record a "Stated First Edition," consistent with the Fantasy Press house practice documented by Quill & Brush. As with…. US original and the true first book edition; the census claim is correct. It was preceded only by the magazine serial in Astounding Stories (1934), which the book text follows. There is no early competing British edition — the first British publication is a Sphere paperback in 1977, thirty years later — so no UK-vs-US precedence question arises. Williamson was a Portales, New Mexico author, and this was his first…. The most dangerous reprint tell for this title is the First Edition Library (Shelton, Connecticut) facsimile, a page-for-page reproduction of the 1947 Fantasy Press edition that reproduces the original copyright page — including its "First Edition" statement. FEL facsimiles were issued in an illustrated paper-covered slipcase/box and carry an FEL facsimile notice; the presence of the slipcase, or of any FEL….
- Darker Than You Think — 1948 · Fantasy PressFirst book edition: Fantasy Press, Reading, Pennsylvania, 1948. "First Edition" is stated on the copyright page with no further printing noted, per the Fantasy Press house practice documented by Quill & Brush and confirmed by L. W. Currey's Fantasy Press entries. The printing was issued in two states: a limited issue of 500 copies hand-numbered and signed by Williamson on an integral limitation leaf, and an…. US original and the true first book edition; the census claim is correct. It expands the novella of the same title from Unknown (December 1940) to novel length, so the magazine text is the only prior appearance and is not a book edition. No earlier or competing British edition is documented in the sources consulted — first British publication is later — so there is no UK-vs-US precedence question. New Mexico…. No contemporaneous book-club issue is documented in the sources consulted. The governing reprint tell is the Fantasy Press imprint itself: Quill & Brush records that the publisher's "First Edition" statement was sometimes left standing on offset reprints issued under other publishers' imprints, so a "First Edition" line means nothing unless the spine, title page and jacket all read Fantasy Press, Reading,….
- The Humanoids — 1949 · Simon & SchusterFirst book edition: Simon & Schuster, New York, 1949. Identification is by absence, not by statement: Quill & Brush records that for Simon & Schuster "Until 1952, no statement on first editions, but subsequent printings noted," and fedpo agrees that S&S books of this era show no printing statement with matching title-page and copyright-page dates. A true first therefore reads 1949 on both the title and copyright…. US original and the true first book edition; the census claim is correct. The text was first serialized in Astounding Science Fiction (1948) as "…And Searching Mind", a sequel to the 1947 Astounding novelette "With Folded Hands" — magazine appearances only, not book editions. The first British edition is Museum Press, London, 1953, four years after the US book, so the Simon & Schuster 1949 clearly holds…. Grosset & Dunlap issued a hardcover reprint in 1950 bearing its own imprint; the G&D imprint on the spine and title page is the reprint tell, and it is the copy most often mistaken for the S&S first precisely because the genuine first carries no edition statement to compare against. Later Avon and Lancer paperbacks carry their own imprints. No separate contemporaneous book-club issue is documented in the sources….
More Literary Fiction (US) & Award Winners shelves: Jamaica Kincaid, James Agee, James Baldwin, James Beard, James Dickey, James Fenimore Cooper.
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