# Is "Pic" by Jack Kerouac a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Pic by Jack Kerouac (Grove Press, 1971) is identified by: First edition, first printing published posthumously by Grove Press, New York, 1971 (Kerouac died 1969). The true first is the 1971 Grove Press hardcover.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, first printing published posthumously by Grove Press, New York, 1971 (Kerouac died 1969)
- Issued both in cloth with dust jacket and in wrappers (Grove's paperbound issue carries the Grove catalog number Z-1090)
- The 1971 issue predates Grove's later adoption of a printed number line, so the true first shows the 1971 copyright with no number line and no statement of a later printing
- Publisher imprint reads Grove Press
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Jack Kerouac |
| Publisher | Grove Press |
| Year | 1971 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, first printing published posthumously by Grove Press, New York, 1971 (Kerouac died 1969) |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First edition, first printing published posthumously by Grove Press, New York, 1971 (Kerouac died 1969). Issued both in cloth with dust jacket and in wrappers (Grove's paperbound issue carries the Grove catalog number Z-1090). The 1971 issue predates Grove's later adoption of a printed number line, so the true first shows the 1971 copyright with no number line and no statement of a later printing.

## Is this the true first?
The true first is the 1971 Grove Press hardcover. Note: the edition combining Pic with The Subterraneans is the UK Andre Deutsch printing of 1973, not a later Grove issue.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book club edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Pic* by Jack Kerouac a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/pic
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.