# Is "Blue City" by Kenneth Millar (Ross Macdonald) a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Blue City by Kenneth Millar (Ross Macdonald) (Alfred A. Knopf, 1947) is identified by: Knopf, New York, 1947, with "FIRST EDITION" stated on the copyright page. The census claim stands: the US Knopf 1947 edition, issued under Millar's real name, is the true first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Knopf, New York, 1947, with "FIRST EDITION" stated on the copyright page
- Knopf's practice through the 1940s was to state "First Edition" on the copyright page of first printings and to note subsequent printings, so a copyright page carrying the statement with no reprint notice identifies the first; "First American Edition" was reserved for books already published abroad and does not apply here
- Bound in red to red-orange cloth with titling and decoration stamped in blue on the spine and front board, with a top-stain
- 276 pp, octavo
- Dust jacket designed by Philip Grushkin; a priced jacket with the price present at the front flap
- Note a minor conflict among dealers on the top-stain, described as blue by two sources and black by a third — the cloth colour and blue stamping are consistent across all sources consulted
- Publisher imprint reads Alfred A. Knopf

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Kenneth Millar (Ross Macdonald) |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
| Year | 1947 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Knopf, New York, 1947, with "FIRST EDITION" stated on the copyright page |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
Knopf, New York, 1947, with "FIRST EDITION" stated on the copyright page. Knopf's practice through the 1940s was to state "First Edition" on the copyright page of first printings and to note subsequent printings, so a copyright page carrying the statement with no reprint notice identifies the first; "First American Edition" was reserved for books already published abroad and does not apply here. Bound in red to red-orange cloth with titling and decoration stamped in blue on the spine and front board, with a top-stain; 276 pp, octavo. Dust jacket designed by Philip Grushkin; a priced jacket with the price present at the front flap. Note a minor conflict among dealers on the top-stain, described as blue by two sources and black by a third — the cloth colour and blue stamping are consistent across all sources consulted.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim stands: the US Knopf 1947 edition, issued under Millar's real name, is the true first. It is his third novel, published before he created Lew Archer and before he adopted the Ross Macdonald pseudonym, so the author statement itself is a precedence marker. The first UK edition followed from Cassell, London, and is catalogued variously as 1948 or 1949 depending on the dealer; it is a later edition rather than a competing first, though it is collected in its own right as the first British appearance.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Critical trap: Knopf blind-stamps its own Borzoi colophon on the rear board of its trade printings, and this is routinely mistaken for a book-club blind stamp — the Borzoi device on the rear board is not evidence of a club printing. Genuine club printings are identified by the usual tells: no price present at the jacket flap, a blind stamp or small dot on the rear board, lighter bulk, and cheaper paper stock. No specific named book-club printing of Blue City was documented in the sources consulted.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Blue City* by Kenneth Millar (Ross Macdonald) a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/blue-city
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.