# Is "A Medicine for Melancholy" by Ray Bradbury a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of A Medicine for Melancholy by Ray Bradbury (Doubleday, 1959) is identified by: "First Edition" stated on the copyright page (Doubleday's practice for a first printing). US Doubleday first edition, Garden City, 1959.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- "First Edition" stated on the copyright page (Doubleday's practice for a first printing)
- Bound in black cloth with titling and decoration stamped in silver, illustrated by Joseph Mugnaini, and issued in the first-issue pictorial dust jacket bearing the printed price on the front flap
- A collection of twenty-two stories, including 'The Dragon,' 'Fever Dream,' 'A Scent of Sarsaparilla,' 'Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed,' and 'The Day It Rained Forever.'
- Publisher imprint reads Doubleday
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Ray Bradbury |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
| Year | 1959 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | "First Edition" stated on the copyright page (Doubleday's practice for a first printing) |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
"First Edition" stated on the copyright page (Doubleday's practice for a first printing). Bound in black cloth with titling and decoration stamped in silver, illustrated by Joseph Mugnaini, and issued in the first-issue pictorial dust jacket bearing the printed price on the front flap. A collection of twenty-two stories, including 'The Dragon,' 'Fever Dream,' 'A Scent of Sarsaparilla,' 'Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed,' and 'The Day It Rained Forever.'

## Is this the true first?
US Doubleday first edition, Garden City, 1959. The UK edition of the same year, published by Rupert Hart-Davis, is a variant retitled The Day It Rained Forever with a different selection and ordering: it drops four stories ('A Medicine for Melancholy,' 'The First Night of Lent,' 'All Summer in a Day,' 'The Great Collision of Monday Last') and adds five ('Referent,' 'Almost the End of the World,' 'Here There Be Tygers,' 'Perchance to Dream,' 'And the Rock Cried Out'). The two are distinct books, not a straightforward US/UK reprint.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Book Club editions lack the "First Edition" statement, carry the club blind stamp on the rear board, and have no printed price on the jacket flap.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *A Medicine for Melancholy* by Ray Bradbury a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/a-medicine-for-melancholy
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.