Under the Volcano

The census claim is confirmed, and this is the classic reversed-precedence trap: Lowry was British, but the American Reynal & Hitchcock edition of 19 February 1947 precedes the London Jonathan Cape edition of 1 September 1947 by roughly six months, so the US issue is the true first. The Cape is the first English edition and is collected in its own right; dealer descriptions of its cloth conflict in the sources consulted (grey-green cloth versus pale blue boards), so no binding is asserted for it here. The American edition was hailed and sold strongly in North America, while the book was poorly received in Britain and soon remaindered.