Is My Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 a First Edition?

The points of issue

• First edition, first printing: Straight Arrow Books, San Francisco, 1973
• 506 pages, octavo, bound in black boards stamped in white on the spine with blind-stamped decoration to the front cover and black endpapers
• Illustrated throughout with full-page and in-text drawings by Ralph Steadman; jacket art by Tom Benton
• The governing point is the jacket, not the book: the first-state jacket has a white border around the rear-panel photograph of Thompson with George McGovern
• The second-state jacket lacks that white border around the rear photograph and carries a printed price on the front blurb; a priced jacket alone is therefore not diagnostic here — check the border
• Copies are routinely catalogued as 'first edition, first printing, second state jacket', confirming that the two jacket states occur on the same printing

How to confirm the first-printing statement

Publishers stated first printings differently by era. The decisive tells are a printed “First Edition/First Printing” statement, a number line whose lowest number is 1 (Random House ends at 2), or a dated first printing with no later printings listed. Paste your copyright page into the number-line decoder.

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Confirm the first-edition statement — look for “First Edition,” “First Printing,” or the publisher’s equivalent wording.
3. Check for a number line or dated printing — the lowest number present is the printing; a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the tell.
4. Verify this is the UK true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
5. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
6. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

The census claim that no contemporary UK edition exists is incorrect and has been corrected. The US Straight Arrow Books (San Francisco) 1973 edition is the true first. A UK edition followed from Allison & Busby, London, in 1974 (ISBN 085031125X), also 506 pages, with Ralph Steadman jacket art — it is collected in its own right as the first UK edition but is preceded by the American issue by roughly a year.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book club edition is documented in the sources consulted, including the HST Books bibliography, which lists the first issue and the first-edition/second-issue jacket variant but records no club printing.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 a first edition?

A first edition of Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 by Hunter S. Thompson (Straight Arrow Books) is identified by: First edition, first printing: Straight Arrow Books, San Francisco, 1973; 506 pages, octavo, bound in black boards stamped in white on the spine with blind-stamped decoration to the front cover and black endpapers.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A stated first edition, a number line ending in 1, or a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the key. The census claim that no contemporary UK edition exists is incorrect and has been corrected.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

No book club edition is documented in the sources consulted, including the HST Books bibliography, which lists the first issue and the first-edition/second-issue jacket variant but records no club printing.

I have a first edition of Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.