3 John Gardner first editions are documented on this shelf, from The Resurrection (1966) to The Sunlight Dialogues (1972) across 3 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that John Gardner 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 John Gardner copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- The Resurrection — 1966 · The New American LibraryThe first printing states 'First Printing' on the copyright page, consistent with documented New American Library practice of using a first-edition statement together with a number row. The book is an octavo bound in black cloth spine with brown faux-grain paper boards, the spine lettered in gilt; the jacket was designed by Ken Braren and should be a priced jacket with the price present at the flap. The first…. US New American Library (New York), 1966, is the true first — Gardner's first novel, preceded in his bibliography only by the co-edited anthology The Forms of Fiction, and the first Gardner 'A' item of fiction. No contemporaneous British edition was traced in the sources consulted, so no UK/US precedence question arises on the evidence available. Published during David Segal's brief editorial tenure at NAL…. No book-club issue of The Resurrection is documented in the sources consulted, and a first printing of 2,500 copies makes a contemporaneous club issue unlikely. The Ballantine paperback is a reprint rather than a club edition. Any copy lacking the 'First Printing' statement on the copyright page is a later printing or reprint.
- Grendel — 1971 · Alfred A. Knopf, New YorkAlfred A. Knopf, New York, 1971 (trade listings give publication as August 1971). First printing: 'First Edition' is STATED on the copyright page — this is a stated-first house, so the statement is the primary point and its absence disqualifies. Collation 174, [6] pp, octavo (some dealers collate [x], 174, [4]). Publisher's purple cloth stamped in gilt, with a purple topstain. Illustrated throughout with line…. TRUE FIRST IS US — census claim confirmed. Alfred A. Knopf (New York, 1971) precedes; André Deutsch (London) issued the first UK edition in 1972 (ISBN 0-233-96342-1), in orange cloth lettered in gilt, retaining Antonucci's frontispiece, chapter-heading drawings and his Grendel's-head jacket design. The Deutsch is collected as the first British edition, not the first. A caution on cataloguing: at least one…. No Grendel-specific book-club variant is separately documented in the sources consulted, so no title-level tell can be asserted. The general Knopf-era book-club tells apply and should be checked: the copyright page lacks the 'First Edition' statement, the rear board carries a blind-stamped depression (circle, dot or square) near the lower corner, the jacket carries no price at the flap, and the bulk is smaller….
- The Sunlight Dialogues — 1972 · Alfred A. KnopfThe first edition states 'FIRST EDITION' on the copyright page (Knopf's consistent practice since 1933–34), under the Borzoi device. It is bound in red cloth with a black debossed design to the front board and gilt spine lettering, 673 pp., illustrated throughout by John Napper, with the top edge stained black; the first-issue dust jacket is priced at the front flap and carries a '12/72' code on the rear flap. US Alfred A. Knopf (New York), 1972, is the true first; a UK Jonathan Cape edition followed in 1973, so US precedence is clear. (One dealer record misdates the book to 1973 with a 573-pp collation — an error; the correct first is Knopf 1972, 673 pp.). Beware the Knopf trap: later Knopf printings retain the words 'FIRST EDITION' but add a printing statement (copies are catalogued as e.g. 'First Edition, Seventh Printing'), so a true first must show no additional printing line and the first-issue ('12/72') jacket.
More Literary Fiction (US) & Award Winners shelves: John Green, John Grisham, John Hawkes, John Hersey, John Irving, John Kennedy Toole.
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