2 James Agee first editions are documented on this shelf, from Permit Me Voyage (1934) to A Death in the Family (1957) across 2 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that James Agee title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.

Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a James Agee copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.

Permit Me Voyage — 1934 · Yale University PressTrue first is New Haven: Yale University Press, 1934, Agee's first book, issued as Volume 33 of the Yale Series of Younger Poets (series edited by Stephen Vincent Benet) with a foreword by Archibald MacLeish; slim octavo, 59 pages, Mullaly B11. Predominantly described as GREEN cloth lettered in dark green at the spine (confirmed by multiple dealers; one describes gray boards lettered in black, a minority/variant…. US-only true first — Yale University Press, New Haven, 1934. There is no competing UK or original-language edition; the census 'US-only Yale 1934 first' claim is correct. No book-club edition. The 1934 Yale volume is the sole first printing; beware 'first thus' reprints, later Agee collections, and anthology appearances that reprint the poems.
A Death in the Family — 1957 · McDowell, ObolenskyMcDowell, Obolensky first, first printing: the title page is printed in blue ink, and the text reads 'walking' for 'waking' on page 80 (the first-issue error). Blue cloth lettered in silver, with a green top-stain; first-issue jacket carries the printed price on the front flap. Published posthumously; awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1958. US McDowell, Obolensky 1957 is the true first. The two reliable first-printing points are the blue-inked title page and the 'walking'-for-'waking' typo on page 80; later states correct the typo and drop the blue title page. Later printings and book-club copies correct the page-80 reading to 'waking' and lack the blue title page; book-club copies may also show a blind-stamp.

More Literary Fiction (US) & Award Winners shelves: James Baldwin, James Beard, James Dickey, James Fenimore Cooper, James Gould Cozzens, James Hilton.

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