7 Jared Diamond first editions are documented on this shelf, from The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (1992) to Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis (2019) across 7 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Jared Diamond 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 Jared Diamond copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal — 1992 · HarperCollinsFirst American edition, HarperCollins, 1992 (ISBN 0-06-018307-1), viii plus 408 pages. The copyright page states 'FIRST EDITION' with the HarperCollins number line still including the 1. Bound in quarter cloth over textured boards; the first-issue color pictorial dust jacket was designed by Joel Avirom and should retain its printed flap price (present, not clipped). The true first edition is the British edition published in 1991 by Hutchinson Radius under a DIFFERENT title, 'The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee: How Our Animal Heritage Affects the Way We Live.' That UK edition precedes the 1992 US HarperCollins edition, which was retitled 'The Third Chimpanzee.' Collectors seeking the true first should target the 1991 Hutchinson Radius issue and note the title differs. Distinguish the 1991 UK Hutchinson Radius first ('The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee') from the 1992 US HarperCollins first edition ('FIRST EDITION' stated, number line including 1, Joel Avirom jacket). No notable book-club hardcover.
- Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies — 1997 · W. W. NortonFirst US edition, first printing: full number line '1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0' on the copyright page. Original dust jacket with the printed price. Subtitle on the US first is 'The Fates of Human Societies.'. US Norton 1997 is the true first. The UK edition (Jonathan Cape, 1997) bears the variant title 'Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years' — a true first in its own market with a different subtitle. Won the 1998 Pulitzer; post-Pulitzer printings are far more common than the first. Book club editions lack the full number line ending in low digits, are on thinner paper, often smaller, and carry an unpriced or clipped jacket with a BCE blind stamp.
- Why Is Sex Fun? The Evolution of Human Sexuality — 1997 · Basic BooksBasic Books hardcover first printing in the Science Masters series, with a number line ending in 1 and a priced dust jacket (US first-edition ISBN 978-0-465-03127-6). The UK first was Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, also 1997. Part of the international Science Masters series, so US (Basic Books) and UK (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) editions are both 1997 and near-simultaneous; precedence is genuinely contested, but the US Basic Books hardcover is the edition most commonly cited as the first. No prominent book club edition.
- Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed — 2005 · VikingCopyright page carries the Viking imprint with a full number line descending to 1. Black boards with dust jacket; ISBN 0-670-03337-5; first-issue jacket with the printed price. Maps and illustrations throughout. The US Viking edition (copyright 2005) is the edition generally collected as the first. The UK (Allen Lane) edition appeared in early 2005 as a separate first thus; precise priority between the two is debated, so neither should be asserted over the other as the global true first. There is no major book-club hardcover. Distinguish the first from later Viking printings (number line no longer ending in 1) and from the UK Allen Lane edition. A price-printed jacket plus the number line ending in 1 identify the US Viking first.
- Natural Experiments of History — 2010 · Belknap Press of Harvard University PressFirst printing from the Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010. An edited volume co-edited by Jared Diamond and James A. Robinson. First printings carry the full number line descending to 1 with no later-printing statement. US true first (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010). This is an edited collection, not a single-author work. No book club edition.
- The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? — 2012 · VikingFirst printing from Viking, 2012, with the full number line 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 present on the copyright page (descending to 1). Bound in dark quarter cloth with gilt spine lettering over light gray boards; the photographic dust jacket carries an image of a woman and child in a mountain village and should retain its printed price. ISBN 978-0-670-02481-0. US true first (Viking, published December 31, 2012). The UK edition (Allen Lane, ISBN 978-0-713-99898-6) appeared in 2013 and does not precede. No prominent book club edition.
- Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis — 2019 · Little, Brown and CompanyFirst printing from Little, Brown and Company, 2019, with the number line descending to 1 and a priced dust jacket. Note the US subtitle 'Turning Points for Nations in Crisis' differs from the UK Allen Lane subtitle 'How Nations Cope with Crisis and Change'. US true first (Little, Brown, published May 7, 2019), which narrowly precedes the UK Allen Lane edition (May 14, 2019). The two editions carry different subtitles. No prominent book club edition.
More Nonfiction & Memoir shelves: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Joan Didion, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, John L. Stephens, John McPhee, John Milton.
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