Eudora Welty First Editions

• A Curtain of Green — 1941 · Doubleday, Doran & Company'FIRST EDITION' stated on the copyright page; original orange cloth stamped in white and green; 285,[1] pp.; first-issue dust jacket unclipped at the printed price; introduction by Katherine Anne Porter. Roughly 2,476 copies printed. Welty's first book; full title 'A Curtain of Green and Other Stories.'. US Doubleday, Doran is the true first; full title 'A Curtain of Green and Other Stories.' Welty's first book, containing 'Death of a Traveling Salesman' and 'A Worn Path.'. Later states omit the stated 'First Edition'; confirm the orange cloth, the stated first on the copyright page, and the unclipped the printed price jacket.
• The Robber Bridegroom — 1942 · Doubleday, Doran & Company'FIRST EDITION' stated on the copyright page; Doubleday, Doran imprint; original blue cloth stamped in white and pink; first-issue dust jacket retaining its original price. Welty's first novel (a novella retelling of a Grimm tale set in the Natchez Trace country). US Doubleday, Doran (1942) is the true first; the UK first is John Lane The Bodley Head (1944), with illustrations by James Holland. Later printings drop the stated 'First Edition'; confirm the blue cloth, the stated first, and the price-intact first-issue jacket.
• The Wide Net and Other Stories — 1943 · Harcourt, Brace and Company"first edition" stated on the copyright page; a story collection, octavo, 214 pages, bound in publisher's navy blue cloth lettered in white on the spine. The first-issue dust jacket was designed by E. McKnight Kauffer and carries its printed price on the front flap; the pink portion of the spine lettering is notoriously fugitive and has usually faded toward invisibility, so surviving pink spine color is a good…. US first edition (Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1943); the UK edition (John Lane / The Bodley Head, 1945) follows. Later reprints drop the "first edition" statement from the copyright page. On the jacket the printed front-flap price should be present, though price-clipping alone does not determine issue.
• Delta Wedding — 1946 · Harcourt, Brace & Company'FIRST EDITION' stated on the copyright page; Harcourt, Brace and Company imprint, first printing April 1946 (Polk bibliography A5:1.4). Bound in tan cloth with the author's monogram stamped on the upper cover and the spine lettered and decorated in burgundy; illustrated Delta-country map endpapers and dust jacket by Charles Alston, the jacket retaining its printed first-issue price on the front flap. Welty's…. The US Harcourt, Brace edition (April 1946) is the true first; the UK Bodley Head edition (1947) follows. Later states omit the stated 'First Edition' and lack the price-intact first-issue Alston jacket; confirm the stated first on the copyright page.
• Music from Spain — 1948 · Levee PressThe Levee Press, Greenville, Mississippi, 1948 — printed in the week of 28 June 1948 and the first book issued by the Levee Press. 8vo, 62 pp, with decorative head pieces; bound in paper-covered (decorated) boards with a printed paper spine label, and issued without a dust jacket as published. Signed by Welty on the limitation/colophon page. On the limitation, dealers split and the split is reconcilable: the…. Census claim CONFIRMED: a US-only original — the Levee Press, Greenville, Mississippi, 1948 — with no UK or foreign-language edition preceding it. The trap is The Golden Apples (Harcourt, Brace, New York, 1949), in which the story was collected as the penultimate piece; that is the first trade-collection appearance and is often mistaken for the story's first appearance. The Levee Press printing precedes it by…. No book-club issue exists — this is a signed limited press book, never a trade printing, and was not offered through any club. The only cataloguing hazard is the 775-vs-750 limitation discrepancy noted above, which reflects the hors commerce copies rather than a variant issue.
• The Golden Apples — 1949 · Harcourt, Brace and Company"first edition" stated on the copyright page; the linked story cycle set in Morgana, Mississippi. Bound in quarter maroon cloth over green paper-covered boards, with a gilt decoration to the front board and gilt lettering to the spine. Issued in the first-issue pictorial dust jacket, whose front flap carries the original printed price (present, not clipped, on a true first-issue example). US first edition (Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York, 1949) is the true first; the UK edition (The Bodley Head, London, 1950) follows. Later reprints drop the "first edition" statement from the copyright page; confirm the Harcourt, Brace imprint and the stated first edition.
• The Ponder Heart — 1954 · Harcourt, Brace and CompanyUS first edition with "first edition" stated on the copyright page, published by Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York, January 1954. A novella bound in half cloth over beige boards, illustrated with pen-and-ink drawings by Joe Krush. The first-issue dust jacket bears a photograph of Welty by Kay Bell and carries the printed price on the flap. The US Harcourt, Brace first edition is the true first; the UK Hamish Hamilton edition (1954) follows. Later reprints lack the "first edition" statement on the copyright page; the story had earlier appeared in The New Yorker (1953), which is not a book issue.
• The Bride of the Innisfallen and Other Stories — 1955 · Harcourt, Brace and CompanyFirst edition, Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York, 1955, stating 'first edition' on the copyright page; a collection of seven stories — 'No Place for You, My Love,' 'The Burning,' 'The Bride of the Innisfallen,' 'Ladies in Spring,' 'Circe,' 'Kin,' and 'Going to Naples.' Bound in light yellowish-brown cloth, blocked and titled in light blue and gilt on the spine. The first-issue jacket should carry its printed…. US Harcourt, Brace first edition of 1955; the UK edition (Hamish Hamilton, 1955) follows. Note that binding/issue points are contested: the Ahearns describe certain copies as 'first edition, third issue, second binding' while Noel Polk's bibliography treats them as 'first edition, second printing (concealed)' — a distinction worth checking against the specific copy. Later reprints drop the 'first edition' statement on the copyright page.
• The Shoe Bird — 1964 · Harcourt, Brace & World'first edition' stated on the copyright page; Welty's only children's book, illustrated by Beth Krush, published by Harcourt, Brace & World, New York, 1964, 88 pages. Bound in yellow cloth lettered in black on the spine, with a parrot wearing shoes stamped on the front board, in a pictorial dust jacket carrying its printed price on the front flap. Recorded as A14:1 in Noel Polk's descriptive bibliography of Welty. US first edition; first appearance of this children's title (first thus), the Harcourt, Brace & World printing of 1964, corresponding to Polk A14:1. Later reprints lack the 'first edition' statement; a first-issue copy pairs the stated 'first edition' with the yellow cloth, the shoe-wearing-parrot front-board stamp, and the price-bearing jacket flap.
• Losing Battles — 1970 · Random House"First Edition" stated on the copyright page (no number line on this era of Random House firsts). First-issue dust jacket carries the 7.95 price and a the printed price printing code on the rear flap; binding is gilt-stamped olive cloth, jacket designed by John Kashiwabara. Published April 1970. US Random House first edition is the true first. The UK edition (Bodley Head) follows. A separate signed, numbered limited edition of 300 copies was issued in a slipcase with a plain acetate jacket. Book club issues are typically printed on thinner stock, lack the priced first-state jacket, and may omit or alter the copyright-page issue points; verify against the priced the printed price jacket.
• One Time, One Place: Mississippi in the Depression — 1971 · Random HouseRandom House, New York, November 1971, with 'First Edition' stated on the copyright page. A small square quarto snapshot album reproducing Welty's own Depression-era photographs, with roughly 98 duotone plates and her own six-page foreword, the images arranged in four parts titled Workday, Saturday, Sunday, and Portraits. Bound in dark cloth and issued in a pictorial dust jacket printed largely in black, with the…. The Random House trade first (November 1971) was preceded by a signed limited edition of 300 slipcased copies, also Random House 1971; that signed limited is therefore the true first issue, with the trade printing the true first for most collectors. First appearance of the work in book form, and first appearance of Welty's photographs as a collected album. Later printings drop the stated 'First Edition' line; the University Press of Mississippi later reissued an expanded edition, which is a separate, later book with a different foreword apparatus and should not be confused with the 1971 first.
• The Optimist's Daughter — 1972 · Random HouseRandom House first edition has First Edition stated on the copyright page, in first-issue cloth and jacket bearing the printed price. A signed limited edition of 300 numbered copies (signed by Welty at the limitation, in a publisher's slipcase) was issued and precedes the trade. Won the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The 300-copy signed, numbered limited edition is the true first issue; the First-Edition-stated trade printing follows. Book-club copies lack the First Edition statement and carry a rear-board blind-stamp.
• The Eye of the Story: Selected Essays and Reviews — 1978 · Random House"First Edition" stated on the copyright page. Bound in publisher's quarter cloth over patterned paper-covered boards, roughly 355 pages. First-issue dust jacket carries the printed price on the front flap (present on unclipped copies). Welty's first gathering of her selected essays and reviews. US Random House first edition, with "First Edition" stated on the copyright page, is the true first; a first-thus essay collection. Reprints and later printings drop the stated First Edition line; the later trade paperback (Vintage) is a separate, later issue.
• The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty — 1980 · Harcourt Brace JovanovichTwo distinct issues. The trade first edition states "First edition" with a full number line and carries a first-state dust jacket priced 20.00. The signed limited edition of 500 copies is individually numbered, bound in burgundy cloth, signed by Welty, and issued in a publisher's slipcase WITHOUT a dust jacket (none was issued for the limited). US Harcourt Brace Jovanovich first edition; first-thus collected gathering. The signed limited (500 copies, slipcased) is the premium issue and was issued alongside the trade printing, not the trade jacket. Book club issues lack the number line and the priced first-state jacket. Do not look for a dust jacket on the signed limited — it was issued in a slipcase only, so a jacketed copy of the limited would be a mismatch.
• One Writer's Beginnings — 1984 · Harvard University PressTrade first printing shows a full number line on the copyright page (later printings show a higher low number, e.g. ending in 4 for the fourth printing); first-state dust jacket priced 10.00 on the front flap. Memoir drawn from Welty's William E. Massey Sr. Lectures in the History of American Civilization. Bound in quarter brown cloth over grey cloth, gilt lettering. US Harvard University Press first edition is the true first; first-thus memoir. A signed, numbered limited edition of 350 copies was issued in a slipcase WITHOUT a dust jacket and is the premium issue. No conventional book-club edition; identify printings by the number line (a fully present line down to 1 indicates the first printing). The signed limited carries no jacket — it was issued slipcased only.

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