# Is "Collected Stories of William Faulkner" by William Faulkner a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Collected Stories of William Faulkner by William Faulkner (Random House, New York, 1950) is identified by: Census claim confirmed. The US edition (Random House, New York, 1950) is the true first; it won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1951.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The first printing states FIRST PRINTING on the copyright page
- It is bound in gray cloth with gilt lettering to the spine and a blue top stain; the title page carries blue (with black) printing over the title
- A distinctive first-issue point is the word "The" appearing on the book's spine above "Collected Stories of William Faulkner" — this reads as an error, since "The" does not appear on the jacket spine
- The back board of a true trade first has no blind stamp or dimple
- The jacket should be present with the price at the upper corner of the front flap (priced jacket / price present at the flap)
- Thick octavo of roughly 900 pages; cited as Petersen A26a
- Publisher imprint reads Random House, New York

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | William Faulkner |
| Publisher | Random House, New York |
| Year | 1950 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The first printing states FIRST PRINTING on the copyright page |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
Census claim confirmed. The first printing states FIRST PRINTING on the copyright page. It is bound in gray cloth with gilt lettering to the spine and a blue top stain; the title page carries blue (with black) printing over the title. A distinctive first-issue point is the word "The" appearing on the book's spine above "Collected Stories of William Faulkner" — this reads as an error, since "The" does not appear on the jacket spine. The back board of a true trade first has no blind stamp or dimple. The jacket should be present with the price at the upper corner of the front flap (priced jacket / price present at the flap). Thick octavo of roughly 900 pages; cited as Petersen A26a.

## Is this the true first?
The US edition (Random House, New York, 1950) is the true first; it won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1951. The first English edition followed from Chatto & Windus, London, in 1951, bound in blue cloth; it is a legitimate first English edition collected separately but has no claim on precedence.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Book-club copies are well documented and are distinguished by several tells taken together: a small blind stamp or dimple impressed at a corner of the back board; the word "The" omitted from the spine; no blue top stain; a title page lacking the blue highlighting over the title; and a thinner, lower-grade cloth than the trade binding. A stated FIRST PRINTING on the copyright page alone does not clear a copy — book-club printings can carry over the statement, so the blind stamp and the spine/top-stain points must be checked.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Collected Stories of William Faulkner* by William Faulkner a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/collected-stories-of-william-faulkner
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.