3 Tom Wolfe first editions are documented on this shelf, from The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby (1965) to The Right Stuff (1979). Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Tom Wolfe 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 Tom Wolfe copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby — 1965 · Farrar, Straus and GirouxFirst printing states "First Printing, 1965" explicitly on the copyright page — FSG's own statement, and the whole test. Its absence, or any later printing statement, rules out a first. Octavo, xvii, [1], 339, [1] pp. Publisher's white cloth, the spine lettered in gilt with decoration and titling to the upper board; line drawings throughout by Wolfe. Priced jacket with the price present at the front flap;…. Census claim confirmed: FSG, New York, 1965 is the true first, and this is Wolfe's first book. The first English edition is Jonathan Cape, London, 1966 (xvii + 339 pp, jacket designed by Jonathan Miller), separately collected but subsequent to the US. Note the date trap this creates: a copy dated 1966 is either the Cape UK edition or a US reprint, never the FSG first. A printed publisher's note apologising to the…. No book-club issue is documented for this title in the sources consulted. Later FSG printings are identified by the printing statement on the copyright page.
- The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test — 1968 · Farrar, Straus and GirouxFirst US edition, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (New York), 1968; white cloth boards with the spine lettered in metallic orange, pink/purple, and blue and the publisher's device stamped in metallic green at the spine foot, with bright orange endpapers. The copyright page states 'First printing, 1968'. First-issue dust jacket designed by Milton Glaser, with a photograph of the author by Jacques Lowe to the rear panel;…. Farrar, Straus and Giroux US (1968) is the true first; Weidenfeld & Nicolson issued the UK edition. The defining New Journalism chronicle of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. Confirm the 'First printing, 1968' statement on the copyright page. Distinguish from later printings via the 'First printing, 1968' copyright-page statement; the price-present, unclipped first-issue jacket is required for a true first in jacket. Beware book-club look-alikes, which typically lack the printed jacket price and may show a gutter-code blind stamp to the rear board.
- The Right Stuff — 1979 · Farrar, Straus and GirouxFirst edition, first printing: FSG statement 'First printing, 1979' on the copyright page (FSG used a printed-statement convention). Original dust jacket with its printed price, jacket design with the title in the period typography. No later-printing notations. US FSG 1979 is the true first, preceding the UK Jonathan Cape edition (1980). Signed Wolfe copies are desirable. Basis for the 1983 film, after which printings multiplied. Book club editions lack the 'First printing, 1979' line, have a blind board stamp, are slightly reduced in size, and carry an unpriced jacket.
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