# Is "Coming into the Country — deeper McPhee: Annals of the Former World" by John McPhee a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Coming into the Country — deeper McPhee: Annals of the Former World by John McPhee (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998) is identified by: Copyright page carries the FSG 'First edition, first printing' statement with no later-printing notation. The US FSG edition is the true first omnibus, collecting Basin and Range (1981), In Suspect Terrain (1983), Rising from the Plains (1986), and Assembling California (1993), plus the new final section Crossing the Craton.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Copyright page carries the FSG 'First edition, first printing' statement with no later-printing notation
- ISBN 0-374-10520-0 (978-0-374-10520-4); black cloth binding, roughly 700 pages, in a pictorial dust jacket whose printed price should be present and unclipped
- Publisher imprint reads Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | John McPhee |
| Publisher | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
| Year | 1998 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Copyright page carries the FSG 'First edition, first printing' statement with no later-printing notation |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Copyright page carries the FSG 'First edition, first printing' statement with no later-printing notation. ISBN 0-374-10520-0 (978-0-374-10520-4); black cloth binding, roughly 700 pages, in a pictorial dust jacket whose printed price should be present and unclipped.

## Is this the true first?
The US FSG edition is the true first omnibus, collecting Basin and Range (1981), In Suspect Terrain (1983), Rising from the Plains (1986), and Assembling California (1993), plus the new final section Crossing the Craton. Won the 1999 Pulitzer for General Nonfiction.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue of note; the individual constituent volumes (FSG, 1981-1993) are separate firsts. The FSG 'First edition, first printing' statement on the copyright page and the unclipped printed-price pictorial jacket identify this omnibus first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Coming into the Country — deeper McPhee: Annals of the Former World* by John McPhee a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/coming-into-the-country-deeper-mcphee-annals-of-the-former-w
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.