The Ancient Child

US Doubleday (New York), 1989 is the true first and is the only hardcover first — no UK hardcover edition of the same date was located in the sources consulted, so this is genuinely a US-only first and the census claim stands. The Harper Perennial paperback of 1990 (ISBN 0-06-097345-5) is a first-thus reissue with no precedence and is the most common trap, since it is the edition most often shelved and cited. Momaday wrote in English, so no original-language precedence question arises. This is Momaday's second novel, after the Pulitzer-winning House Made of Dawn.