Blue City

The census claim stands: the US Knopf 1947 edition, issued under Millar's real name, is the true first. It is his third novel, published before he created Lew Archer and before he adopted the Ross Macdonald pseudonym, so the author statement itself is a precedence marker. The first UK edition followed from Cassell, London, and is catalogued variously as 1948 or 1949 depending on the dealer; it is a later edition rather than a competing first, though it is collected in its own right as the first British appearance.