# Is "Bird Box" by Josh Malerman a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Bird Box by Josh Malerman (Harper Voyager, London, 2014) is identified by: The true first is the UK Harper Voyager (London) hardcover of 2014, ISBN 0007529872 / 9780007529872, published 27 March 2014. The census claim is CONFIRMED.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The true first is the UK Harper Voyager (London) hardcover of 2014, ISBN 0007529872 / 9780007529872, published 27 March 2014
- Dealers identify the first printing by a "1" present on the copyright page; the binding is laminated pictorial boards
- The jacket, where issued, should be a priced jacket with the price present at the flap and unclipped
- The US Ecco (HarperCollins, New York) issue of the same year is separately identified: it carries a stated "First edition" with the number line 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1, in grey pictorial boards
- No first-state text error is documented for either issue; the identification rests on the copyright-page evidence alone
- Publisher imprint reads Harper Voyager, London
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Josh Malerman |
| Publisher | Harper Voyager, London |
| Year | 2014 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The true first is the UK Harper Voyager (London) hardcover of 2014, ISBN 0007529872 / 9780007529872, published 27 March 2014 |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The true first is the UK Harper Voyager (London) hardcover of 2014, ISBN 0007529872 / 9780007529872, published 27 March 2014. Dealers identify the first printing by a "1" present on the copyright page; the binding is laminated pictorial boards. The jacket, where issued, should be a priced jacket with the price present at the flap and unclipped. The US Ecco (HarperCollins, New York) issue of the same year is separately identified: it carries a stated "First edition" with the number line 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1, in grey pictorial boards. No first-state text error is documented for either issue; the identification rests on the copyright-page evidence alone.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim is CONFIRMED. This is a UK-before-US title and the point is easy to miss because the author is American: Harper Voyager (London) published on 27 March 2014, roughly six to seven weeks ahead of Ecco (New York) on 13 May 2014, so the UK Harper Voyager hardcover is the true first of Malerman's debut. At least one dealer explicitly catalogues the Harper Voyager issue as "First UK Edition (True First Edition)/First Printing." Both are collected — the Ecco is the first American edition and is widely offered as a first — but precedence belongs to the UK issue.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented. Reprint tells are loss of the "1" on the copyright page (UK) or a number line no longer running to 1 (US Ecco). Beware of "first thus" traps: the Harper Voyager UK paperback of 29 January 2015 (ISBN 9780007529902), the film tie-in paperback issued after the Netflix adaptation, and the Dark Regions Press special editions (500 signed/numbered and 26 deluxe signed/lettered traycased copies, with added artwork, the story "Bobby Knocks" and a new afterword) are all later issues, not firsts — the Dark Regions copies contain material not present in the true first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Bird Box* by Josh Malerman a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/bird-box
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.