The Auctioneer

US Simon and Schuster (New York) is the true first, and the census's 1975 date is correct against the evidence of the book itself: LCCN 75023337, with the Internet Archive's record of a physical copy and Open Library both giving Simon and Schuster, New York, 1975. Note a live cataloguing discrepancy that will confuse buyers: Wikipedia and some trade records date the book to January 1976, which appears to reflect the on-sale date rather than the copyright/publication year. The London edition from Hodder & Stoughton (ISBN 0-340-22313-3) followed in 1976 and does not precede. This was Samson's only novel.