# Is "Double Star" by Robert A. Heinlein a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein (Doubleday, 1956) is identified by: True first is the 1956 Doubleday & Company hardcover (Garden City), the year's Hugo winner; it was serialized in Astounding Science-Fiction (1956) before book form. Caution: the Signet paperback and later printings are reprints, not the first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- True first is the 1956 Doubleday & Company hardcover (Garden City), the year's Hugo winner; it was serialized in Astounding Science-Fiction
- before book form
- A caution title
- The first states 'First Edition' on the copyright page and is bound in black boards with the spine lettered in white
- First-issue dust-jacket points appear on the rear panel and flaps, which advertise other Doubleday science fiction: the first-state jacket lists 'The Long Tomorrow' by Leigh Brackett on the rear panel (changed on later printings to 'all the traps of the earth and other stories') and 'The Dragon in the Sea' on a flap (later replaced by 'The Door into Summer')
- The jacket should retain its printed price
- Publisher imprint reads Doubleday

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Robert A. Heinlein |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
| Year | 1956 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | True first is the 1956 Doubleday & Company hardcover (Garden City), the year's Hugo winner; it was serialized in Astounding Science-Fiction |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
True first is the 1956 Doubleday & Company hardcover (Garden City), the year's Hugo winner; it was serialized in Astounding Science-Fiction (1956) before book form. A caution title. The first states 'First Edition' on the copyright page and is bound in black boards with the spine lettered in white. First-issue dust-jacket points appear on the rear panel and flaps, which advertise other Doubleday science fiction: the first-state jacket lists 'The Long Tomorrow' by Leigh Brackett on the rear panel (changed on later printings to 'all the traps of the earth and other stories') and 'The Dragon in the Sea' on a flap (later replaced by 'The Door into Summer'). The jacket should retain its printed price.

## Is this the true first?
Caution: the Signet paperback and later printings are reprints, not the first. The Doubleday hardcover precedes all of them, and within the first printing the rear-panel 'The Long Tomorrow' / flap 'The Dragon in the Sea' advertisements mark the earliest state of the jacket.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The Doubleday first states 'First Edition' on the copyright page; the Science Fiction Book Club edition lacks that statement, is smaller and more cheaply bound, carries a blind-stamp (small indentation) on the rear board, and its jacket omits the printed price.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Double Star* by Robert A. Heinlein a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/double-star
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.