# Is "A World I Never Made" by James T. Farrell a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of A World I Never Made by James T. Farrell (The Vanguard Press, 1936) is identified by: First edition, first printing, The Vanguard Press, New York, 1936; cloth-bound, roughly 508 pages. US first edition (Vanguard Press, 1936) is the true first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, first printing, The Vanguard Press, New York, 1936; cloth-bound, roughly 508 pages
- The first novel of the Danny O'Neill / O'Neill-O'Flaherty pentalogy, continuing the character introduced in the Studs Lonigan trilogy
- The scarce first-state dust jacket, when present, should be unclipped with its printed price intact
- Publisher imprint reads The Vanguard Press
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | James T. Farrell |
| Publisher | The Vanguard Press |
| Year | 1936 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, first printing, The Vanguard Press, New York, 1936; cloth-bound, roughly 508 pages |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First edition, first printing, The Vanguard Press, New York, 1936; cloth-bound, roughly 508 pages. The first novel of the Danny O'Neill / O'Neill-O'Flaherty pentalogy, continuing the character introduced in the Studs Lonigan trilogy. The scarce first-state dust jacket, when present, should be unclipped with its printed price intact.

## Is this the true first?
US first edition (Vanguard Press, 1936) is the true first. The title drew a well-publicized New York obscenity prosecution shortly after publication, from which Farrell was acquitted; that notoriety helped make it the best-selling volume of the sequence.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Later printings carry printing statements not present on the first; the 1936 Vanguard sheets show no such statement.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *A World I Never Made* by James T. Farrell a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/a-world-i-never-made
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.