4 Kelly Link first editions are documented on this shelf, from Stranger Things Happen (2001) to Get in Trouble (2015) across 3 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Kelly Link 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 Kelly Link copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- Stranger Things Happen — 2001 · Small Beer PressSmall Beer Press trade paperback original, July 2001; ISBN 1-931520-00-3 (9781931520003), cover price stated on the original wrapper. As a paperback original from the small press Link co-founded, this printing is the true first; no hardcover precedes it. A true first carries no later-printing notice on the copyright page. The US Small Beer Press paperback (2001) is the true first, a paperback original. There is no preceding hardcover; later printings add an impression line or notice. A small number of signed copies exist. No book-club edition exists. Any later printing carries an added impression line or notice, and later reissues are not the first.
- Magic for Beginners — 2005 · Small Beer PressTrue first is the Small Beer Press hardcover, published July 2005 (not September), ISBN 1-931520-15-1 (9781931520157). Small Beer issued the hardcover in two states: a signed, hand-numbered limited edition of 150 copies in cobalt-blue pearl linen cloth with two tipped-in plates, and a trade hardcover. Both precede the later mass-market Harcourt/Harvest trade edition. A true first carries no later-printing notice;…. The US Small Beer Press hardcover (2005) is the true first. The later Harcourt/Harvest (2006) trade paperback is a first-thus, not the first. Within the Small Beer issue, the signed limited of 150 in linen cloth is the most distinctive state, with the unsigned trade hardcover also a true first. Any Harcourt or Harvest imprint copy is a later trade edition, not the first. Later Small Beer printings, including the October 2005 second printing, add an impression line.
- Pretty Monsters — 2008 · VikingViking Children's first edition, October 2008, ISBN 0-670-01090-1 (9780670010905), with full number line ending in 1 and the Viking imprint. Issued in the young-adult line; confirm an unclipped jacket flap price. Selected and expanded stories collection illustrated by Shaun Tan. The US Viking hardcover (October 2008) is the true first. The UK Canongate edition appeared in 2009, after Viking, so the US Viking is the recognized first for this collection. Book-club and later paperback editions lack the number line and the flap price.
- Get in Trouble — 2015 · Random HouseRandom House first edition with 'First Edition' stated and a full number line ending in 1 on the copyright page; Random House colophon. Pulitzer Prize finalist for fiction; among Link's most collected later collections. The US Random House hardcover (2015) is the true first. The UK Canongate edition is a separate first-thus. Book-club editions are typically lighter and omit the number line and the flap price.
More Literary Fiction (US) & Award Winners shelves: Ken Follett, Ken Kesey, Kingsley Amis, Kurt Vonnegut, Larry Brown, Larry Niven.
← All authors · All genres · part of the First-Edition Identification resource.