# Is "Deus Irae" by Philip K. Dick & Roger Zelazny a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Deus Irae by Philip K. Dick & Roger Zelazny (Doubleday & Company, 1976) is identified by: "First Edition" stated on the copyright page with no additional printing statement — Doubleday's practice of the period, and the operative test. US original: Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1976 — the first Dick/Zelazny collaboration, written from the manuscript titled "The Kneeling Legless Man".

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- "First Edition" stated on the copyright page with no additional printing statement — Doubleday's practice of the period, and the operative test
- Black boards lettered in red
- 182 pp.; jacket illustration by John Cayea; price present at the front flap on unclipped copies
- Doubleday's gutter code — a letter-and-number cipher printed in the gutter of a late leaf — is recorded by dealers as G27 at p
- 181, indicating an early-June 1976 printing
- Remainder spray to the bottom edge of the text block is common on this title and is not in itself evidence of a later printing
- Publisher imprint reads Doubleday & Company

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Philip K. Dick & Roger Zelazny |
| Publisher | Doubleday & Company |
| Year | 1976 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | "First Edition" stated on the copyright page with no additional printing statement — Doubleday's practice of the period, and the operative… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
"First Edition" stated on the copyright page with no additional printing statement — Doubleday's practice of the period, and the operative test. Black boards lettered in red; 182 pp.; jacket illustration by John Cayea; price present at the front flap on unclipped copies. Doubleday's gutter code — a letter-and-number cipher printed in the gutter of a late leaf — is recorded by dealers as G27 at p. 181, indicating an early-June 1976 printing. Remainder spray to the bottom edge of the text block is common on this title and is not in itself evidence of a later printing. No first-state text errors are documented.

## Is this the true first?
US original: Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1976 — the first Dick/Zelazny collaboration, written from the manuscript titled "The Kneeling Legless Man". The census claim is correct. The first British edition is Victor Gollancz, London, 1977 (182 pp., ISBN 0575023074), a full year later; it is a true second but is collected as the UK first. A UK Science Fiction Book Club edition followed in 1978, and the DAW mass-market paperback (1983) is the first paperback edition — a "first thus", not a first edition.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Doubleday's own clubs issued this title, and Doubleday book-club printings are the standard trap here because the clubs frequently left the "First Edition" line standing in the plates — the statement alone does not settle it. Check the board and jacket instead: a club copy has a small blind-stamped device (square, circle, dot or triangle) debossed at the lower rear board near the spine, no price at the jacket front flap (often a book-club code in a white box on the rear panel instead), and a noticeably lighter, thinner text block on cheaper paper.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Deus Irae* by Philip K. Dick & Roger Zelazny a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/deus-irae
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.