The Other

The US Alfred A. Knopf edition of May 1971 is the true first — Tryon's first novel, and with The Exorcist a founding book of the 1970s horror boom. A first British edition was published by Jonathan Cape, London, also in 1971 (brown boards with gilt-lettered backstrip, 280 pp., carrying the same Paul Bacon jacket illustration); it is collected in its own right, but Knopf holds precedence. Where both are offered, name the Knopf as the true first and the Cape as the first British edition.