The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

CENSUS CORRECTED. The Pan paperback original (UK, October 1980) is the true first — correct as claimed — but the census misses the Arthur Barker (London) hardcover of 1980, which is the first hardback issue and the classic "first thus" trap on this title: it is a genuine 1980 hardcover but it follows the Pan wrappers. Both are collected. The census date for the US edition is also wrong: the first American edition is Harmony Books, New York, released January 1981 (LCCN 81006563, ISBN 0517545357), not 1982 — though some dealer records and one collecting guide date the Harmony first American edition 1980, so treat the US year as 1980/81 unresolved rather than 1982.