The House Next Door

The true first is the US edition: Simon and Schuster, New York, 1978 — the census claim is confirmed, as is its canonisation by Stephen King in Danse Macabre as a modern haunted-house landmark. No UK or original-language edition holds precedence; the book was written in English and first issued in the United States, becoming a New York Times bestseller. Later Ballantine and HarperCollins mass-market printings and the 2007 Simon & Schuster reissue (ISBN 9781416553441) are "first thus" traps, not firsts — only the 1978 S&S hardcover with the number line beginning at 1 is the first.