N. Scott Momaday First Editions

• House Made of Dawn — 1968 · Harper & RowHarper & Row, New York, 1968; the author's first book and winner of the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. A true first edition, first printing is stated "FIRST EDITION" on the copyright page and carries Harper's date code (the D-S code, indicating an April 1968 printing). Bound in red cloth and paper-covered boards, 212 pages. The first-issue dust jacket carries the printed price and the 0668 code on the front…. The true first edition is the Harper & Row 1968 hardcover, first printing, with "FIRST EDITION" stated and the D-S (April 1968) code on the copyright page; there is no earlier US or UK printing. Book-club editions and later printings reprint the text but are not the first edition and are far less collectible. Confirm the D-S code and the priced 0668 first-issue jacket rather than relying on the "FIRST EDITION" line alone. Use the points above to be certain — see book-club edition vs. first edition.
• The Way to Rainy Mountain — 1969 · University of New Mexico PressFirst edition, first printing 1969 University of New Mexico Press, illustrated by Al Momaday; first-issue copyright state with no later-printing line. Issued in cloth (and a wrappers issue); first-issue dust jacket on the cloth state with front-flap price. The 1969 University of New Mexico Press edition is the recognized first trade edition. Its antecedent text, 'The Journey of Tai-me,' was issued in a limited run of about one hundred copies in 1967 at the University of California, Santa Barbara (not a Santa Fe printing); The Way to Rainy Mountain reworked and expanded that material with added commentary, prologue, epilogue, poems, and Al Momaday's drawings. Later UNM Press paperback and reprint editions are distinguished from the 1969 cloth first by added printing statements and the absence of the original priced first-issue jacket.
• The Names: A Memoir — 1976 · Harper & RowCopyright page states 'FIRST EDITION' with the number line ending in 1; first-issue dust jacket carries the printed price on the front flap, with jacket design by Gloria Adelson. Illustrated with family photographs. The US Harper & Row 1976 edition is the true first; Momaday's Kiowa-rooted memoir. Identified by the stated 'FIRST EDITION' and number line ending in 1 plus the priced first-issue jacket; book-club copies lack these and bear a blind stamp.
• The Ancient Child — 1989 · DoubledayThe point is the words "First Edition" stated on the copyright page beneath the copyright notice — Doubleday's documented practice across 1927–2000 — and dealers describe trade first printings of this title as "first edition stated." For Doubleday in this period the stated line, not a number line, is the operative point; later printings drop the statement. The book is issued in quarter cloth over boards with a…. US Doubleday (New York), 1989 is the true first and is the only hardcover first — no UK hardcover edition of the same date was located in the sources consulted, so this is genuinely a US-only first and the census claim stands. The Harper Perennial paperback of 1990 (ISBN 0-06-097345-5) is a first-thus reissue with no precedence and is the most common trap, since it is the edition most often shelved and cited.…. No book-club issue is documented in the sources consulted; the dealer listings examined all describe trade copies. If a Doubleday club printing exists, the period tells would apply: an unpriced jacket, a five-digit code in a white block on the rear jacket panel, absent bar code, thinner bulk and cheaper binding, and a blind stamp at the lower rear board — and note that a Doubleday club copy can still show "First….

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