4 Thornton Wilder first editions are documented on this shelf, from The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927) to The Skin of Our Teeth (1942) across 4 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Thornton Wilder 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 Thornton Wilder copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- The Bridge of San Luis Rey — 1927 · Albert & Charles BoniFirst trade edition: title page printed in green and black, copyright page reading Copyright, 1927, by Albert & Charles Boni, Inc. with no later-printing statement, illustrated in Art Deco style by Amy Drevenstedt. First-issue jacket. Later printings add a printing line beneath the copyright (for example Thirteenth Printing, April, 1928). The US Boni 1927 trade edition is the true first. The signed limited edition illustrated by Rockwell Kent and signed by both Wilder and Kent is dated 1929 and is a later illustrated edition, not the first issue. The book was a runaway bestseller and was reprinted heavily; later printings state a printing number. Grosset reprints are common.
- Heaven's My Destination — 1934 · Longmans, Green & Co.PRECEDENCE TRAP: although the book is routinely offered as a 1935 Harper first, the true first is the UK Longmans, Green & Co. (London) edition, published 3 December 1934, roughly a month ahead of the US. Per Longmans' convention the English first states "First Published 1934" on the copyright page (no examined-copy jacket points could be sourced here, so treat UK binding/jacket detail as unconfirmed). The US…. TRUE FIRST IS UK — Longmans, Green (London), 3 Dec 1934. The US Harper & Brothers edition (dated 1935; code M-I = Dec 1934) follows on 2 Jan 1935. Name both; the American 'first' is a precedence trap. Heaven's My Destination was a Book-of-the-Month Club main selection, so BOMC copies of the US Harper text circulate: they typically show a blind-stamp/dot to the lower rear board and an unpriced jacket. A US Harper copy lacking the "First Edition" statement / M-I code, or an unpriced/clipped jacket, is not the first-issue trade copy.
- Our Town: A Play in Three Acts — 1938 · Coward-McCann, New YorkCoward-McCann applied no "First Edition" statement to books first published in the United States, so a first printing is identified negatively: the copyright page carries no impression or later-printing notice, and subsequent Coward-McCann printings do name the impression. (The torch-colophon test used on Coward-McCann books into the mid-1930s does not apply to a 1938 title.) The first printing is an octavo of…. US true first: Coward-McCann, New York, 1938 — the book was set and printed around the Broadway premiere of 4 February 1938 and preceded the Pulitzer award. The census note's claim of a later "UK Longmans issue" could NOT be confirmed and should not be published as stated: no 1938–39 Longmans, Green (London) issue surfaced in any source consulted; the only Longmans, Green London printing located is 1956, far too…. No book-club issue is documented for Our Town in the sources consulted. The practical reprint tells are the Coward-McCann rule (later impressions are named on the copyright page, first printings are silent) and the physically distinct Samuel French acting edition in paper wrappers, which is an acting text, not a book-club printing.
- The Skin of Our Teeth — 1942 · Harper & Brothers, New York'FIRST EDITION' is stated on the copyright page of the first printing, with no later printing listed — Harper & Brothers had stated first editions since 1922, so absence of the statement rules a copy out. Harper additionally printed a small two-letter month-year code on the copyright page. The month letters run A=January through M=December, skipping J (so K=October, L=November, M=December); the year letters…. US only-first; the census claim is correct as to publisher, city and year. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1942 is the true first, and no UK edition preceding it is recorded in the sources consulted, so no UK-vs-US precedence question arises. One pre-publication artifact exists and cuts the other way as a trap: producer Michael Myerberg's mimeographed production script — 'The Skin of Our Teeth: Play in Three Acts',…. No book-club printing is documented for the 1942 Harper. Later-printing tells: any Harper copyright page listing a printing beyond the first, absence of the FIRST EDITION statement, or a code letter other than -R beneath a 1942-dated title page. The reprints that get mistaken for firsts are 'first thus': the Samuel French acting editions (1944/1945, reset and repaginated at c. 146 pp.) and the Harper 'Three….
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