3 John Hawkes first editions are documented on this shelf, from The Cannibal (1949) to The Blood Oranges (1971). Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that John Hawkes 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 John Hawkes copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- The Cannibal — 1949 · New DirectionsNew Directions, New York, 1949. Number 13 in the 'Direction' series; small format (16mo), 223 pages; gray cloth-textured paper-covered boards; introduction by Albert J. Guerard; the first printing carries no statement of a later printing. Issued in dust jacket. Hawkes's first novel. The US New Directions edition is the true first. There is no preceding UK edition. The substantially revised 1962 New Directions edition is a 'first thus,' not the first edition. No book-club edition of consequence. The unaltered 1949 first-printing copyright page (with the Guerard introduction, not the later revised text) and the presence of the dust jacket are the key tells.
- The Lime Twig — 1961 · New DirectionsNew Directions, New York, 1961. Issued simultaneously in clothbound hardcover and as a New Directions Paperbook; the clothbound hardcover in dust jacket is the collected first state. Introduction by Leslie A. Fiedler; the first printing carries no later-printing statement. The US New Directions edition is the true first. The hardcover was issued alongside a paperbook; the clothbound hardcover in jacket is the premium state and is notably scarcer than the paperbook. Later printings are noted on the copyright page; no significant book-club edition.
- The Blood Oranges — 1971 · New DirectionsNew Directions, New York, 1971. First printing with no later-printing statement on the copyright page; orange-red cloth, spine lettered in gilt; dust jacket designed by Gertrude Huston, carrying the original price to the flap. The US New Directions edition is the true first. First volume of the trilogy with 'Death, Sleep and the Traveler' (1974) and 'Travesty' (1976). Later New Directions printings add a printing statement to the copyright page; no major book-club edition.
More Literary Fiction (US) & Award Winners shelves: John Hersey, John Irving, John Kennedy Toole, John M. Ford, John McGahern, John O'Hara.
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