# Is "A Fine and Private Place" by Peter S. Beagle a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of A Fine and Private Place by Peter S. Beagle (The Viking Press, 1960) is identified by: The true first is the Viking Press hardcover, New York, 1960 — Beagle's first book, written in his early twenties. US first, and the census claim on precedence is correct: The Viking Press, New York, 1960, is the true first — Beagle was American and Viking was his US publisher.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The true first is the Viking Press hardcover, New York, 1960 — Beagle's first book, written in his early twenties
- Viking's house practice is the identification key: from 1937 onward Viking placed a first-publication line on the copyright page (the form is 'First published by The Viking Press in [year]' / 'Published by The Viking Press in [year]') and, critically, noted every subsequent printing
- A first printing therefore shows the 1960 first-publication line and carries no printing notation whatsoever; any copy naming a later printing, or a later Viking date, is not the first
- (Viking did not add a number line until the 1980s, and then only to later printings, so the absence of a number line is meaningless here.) The binding is quarter green cloth over patterned paper-covered boards, lettered in green on the spine
- The jacket is the pictorial design by George Salter and should be present and priced at the flap
- The dealer descriptions and reference sources consulted record no first-state text error for this title
- Publisher imprint reads The Viking Press

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Peter S. Beagle |
| Publisher | The Viking Press |
| Year | 1960 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The true first is the Viking Press hardcover, New York, 1960 — Beagle's first book, written in his early twenties |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The true first is the Viking Press hardcover, New York, 1960 — Beagle's first book, written in his early twenties. Viking's house practice is the identification key: from 1937 onward Viking placed a first-publication line on the copyright page (the form is 'First published by The Viking Press in [year]' / 'Published by The Viking Press in [year]') and, critically, noted every subsequent printing. A first printing therefore shows the 1960 first-publication line and carries no printing notation whatsoever; any copy naming a later printing, or a later Viking date, is not the first. (Viking did not add a number line until the 1980s, and then only to later printings, so the absence of a number line is meaningless here.) The binding is quarter green cloth over patterned paper-covered boards, lettered in green on the spine. The jacket is the pictorial design by George Salter and should be present and priced at the flap. The dealer descriptions and reference sources consulted record no first-state text error for this title.

## Is this the true first?
US first, and the census claim on precedence is correct: The Viking Press, New York, 1960, is the true first — Beagle was American and Viking was his US publisher. The census's date for the UK is wrong, however: Frederick Muller Ltd., London, published the first UK hardcover in 1960, not 1961. The Muller printing is the English first and is collected separately in its own right — an uncorrected proof of it is recorded and described by the offering dealer as the only one they had seen — but it does not precede Viking. Both editions are collected; name them as Viking (New York, 1960) for the true first and Muller (London, 1960) for the English first. The Corgi paperback (1963) and the later Tachyon Publications reissue are 'first thus' only.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club (SFBC/BOMC) issue of the Viking first is documented in the sources consulted, so do not claim one. The reprint tells that do apply are Viking's own: because Viking noted each subsequent printing on the copyright page, any printing notation there marks a later Viking impression. Wikipedia reports a Delta trade paperback in the same year (1960) and a Corgi paperback followed in 1963; both are reprint formats rather than the first edition, and the later Tachyon reissues are plainly marked as such.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *A Fine and Private Place* by Peter S. Beagle a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/a-fine-and-private-place
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.