# Is "A House in the Uplands" by Erskine Caldwell a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of A House in the Uplands by Erskine Caldwell (Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1946) is identified by: First edition, first printing of the Southern plantation novel, New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1946. US first edition (Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1946); no earlier printing precedes it.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, first printing of the Southern plantation novel, New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1946
- Green cloth over boards with silver lettering to the front board and spine, collating [6] plus 238 pages, octavo (about 20.5 cm), issued in a pictorial dust jacket whose upper flap describes the decay of the Southern gentry
- A first-issue jacket is unclipped and retains the original printed price on the flap
- Publisher imprint reads Duell, Sloan and Pearce
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Erskine Caldwell |
| Publisher | Duell, Sloan and Pearce |
| Year | 1946 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, first printing of the Southern plantation novel, New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1946 |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First edition, first printing of the Southern plantation novel, New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1946. Green cloth over boards with silver lettering to the front board and spine, collating [6] plus 238 pages, octavo (about 20.5 cm), issued in a pictorial dust jacket whose upper flap describes the decay of the Southern gentry. A first-issue jacket is unclipped and retains the original printed price on the flap.

## Is this the true first?
US first edition (Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1946); no earlier printing precedes it.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Later printings and reprints exist; the priority issue is the 1946 Duell, Sloan and Pearce first printing in green cloth with silver stamping under the unclipped pictorial jacket.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *A House in the Uplands* by Erskine Caldwell a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/a-house-in-the-uplands
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.