Is My American Psycho a First Edition?

The points of issue

• Paperback original — there is no jacket, the printed wrapper is the binding
• Vintage Contemporaries, New York, March 1991
• ISBN 0-679-73577-1
• First printing: the last line of the copyright page carries a full descending number line, 10 down to 1, double-spaced; the wrapper shows the original Vintage colophon and the minimalist original design
• Later-printing tells: a number line sequenced odds-to-evens (1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2), or any line containing a letter in place of a digit; a revised rear-cover price; and revised back-matter advertising — a copy advertising 'Imperial Bedrooms' (published 2010) is self-evidently late
• CAUTION: at least one dealer listing describes a copy with an odds-to-evens line as a first edition

How Vintage Contemporaries marked a first edition

• States 'First Vintage … Edition (Month Year)' on the copyright page with a descending number line ending in 1.
• Predominantly a trade-paperback REPRINT line — 'first Vintage edition' is usually NOT the first edition of the work.

Full Vintage Contemporaries first-edition guide →

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Confirm the first-edition statement — look for “First Edition,” “First Printing,” or the publisher’s equivalent wording.
3. Read the number line — the lowest number is the printing. A line including 1 is a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2). Paste it into the decoder.
4. Verify this is the US true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
5. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
6. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

TRUE FIRST IS THE US PAPERBACK ORIGINAL — census claim confirmed. Simon & Schuster had the novel under contract for conventional hardcover publication and cancelled roughly three months before release over the book's content; Vintage acquired it and issued it as a Vintage Contemporaries trade paperback original in March 1991, so no American hardcover first edition exists. Picador (London) published the first UK edition — also a paperback — on 26 April 1991, after the Vintage. FIRST-THUS TRAP: Picador issued the first-ever hardback of the novel only in 1998, and a US hardcover appeared from Centipede Press in 2012; both are firsts thus, not first editions, and neither displaces the 1991 Vintage Contemporaries wrapper.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club edition documented. The functional equivalents here are later Vintage printings passed as firsts: identify them by the odds-to-evens or letter-bearing number line, the revised rear-cover price, the later Vintage logo, and back-matter advertising titles published after 1991.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of American Psycho a first edition?

A first edition of American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis (Vintage Contemporaries) is identified by: Paperback original — there is no jacket, the printed wrapper is the binding.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A number line whose lowest number is 1 marks a first printing (Random House ends at 2). TRUE FIRST IS THE US PAPERBACK ORIGINAL — census claim confirmed.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

No book-club edition documented. The functional equivalents here are later Vintage printings passed as firsts: identify them by the odds-to-evens or letter-bearing number line, the revised rear-cover price, the later Vintage logo, and back-matter advertising titles published after 1991.

I have a first edition of American Psycho — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.