# Is "City" by Clifford D. Simak a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of City by Clifford D. Simak (Gnome Press, 1952) is identified by: First edition is so stated on the copyright page (L.W. The census claim is confirmed: Gnome Press, New York, 1952 is the true first — a US small-press original gathering eight Astounding stories (1944-1951), winner of the 1953 International Fantasy Award.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition is so stated on the copyright page (L.W. Currey, ABAA/ILAB, catalogues it as "First edition so stated on copyright page")
- Octavo, 224 pp., bound in publisher's light green cloth; pictorial dust jacket with cover art by Frank Kelly Freas, price present at the front flap
- Dealer collations differ on the spine lettering (described variously as dark green and as black), so treat lettering colour as unsettled and rest identification on the stated edition, the light green cloth, and the Freas jacket
- The Gnome Press bibliography records City as a first edition only, with no documented second printing, state, or binding variant
- Publisher imprint reads Gnome Press
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Clifford D. Simak |
| Publisher | Gnome Press |
| Year | 1952 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition is so stated on the copyright page (L.W. Currey, ABAA/ILAB, catalogues it as "First edition so stated on copyright page") |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
First edition is so stated on the copyright page (L.W. Currey, ABAA/ILAB, catalogues it as "First edition so stated on copyright page"). Octavo, 224 pp., bound in publisher's light green cloth; pictorial dust jacket with cover art by Frank Kelly Freas, price present at the front flap. Dealer collations differ on the spine lettering (described variously as dark green and as black), so treat lettering colour as unsettled and rest identification on the stated edition, the light green cloth, and the Freas jacket. The Gnome Press bibliography records City as a first edition only, with no documented second printing, state, or binding variant.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim is confirmed: Gnome Press, New York, 1952 is the true first — a US small-press original gathering eight Astounding stories (1944-1951), winner of the 1953 International Fantasy Award. The first British edition is Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1954 (black cloth, silver spine titling, 248 pp.); it reprints the US text and is collected in its own right, but it is not the true first. Where both are collected, name them as US first (Gnome Press 1952) and first UK (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1954).

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The UK Science Fiction Book Club issued City in 1961 by arrangement with Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London; its jacket carries no printed price at the flap. Later SFBC reprints also circulate, including the SFBC 50th Anniversary Collection volume. The controlling caution is Gnome Press house practice: the press routinely left "First Edition" standing on reissues and, in some cases, left another publisher's first-edition statement in place when it reprinted that publisher's book — so on a Gnome title the statement alone is never sufficient and the physical book must be examined. For City specifically, the Gnome Press bibliography records only a single printing.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *City* by Clifford D. Simak a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/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.