# Is "Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, Book 1)" by Rebecca Yarros a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, Book 1) by Rebecca Yarros (Red Tower Books / Entangled Publishing, 2023) is identified by: True first is the US trade hardcover, Entangled: Red Tower Books, 2 May 2023 (ISBN 9781649374042), black paper-covered boards in a pictorial dust jacket. US precedes: Red Tower Books (Entangled) is the originating publisher and the 2 May 2023 US hardcover is the true first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- True first is the US trade hardcover, Entangled: Red Tower Books, 2 May 2023 (ISBN 9781649374042), black paper-covered boards in a pictorial dust jacket
- The decisive point is the copyright-page number line: a first printing runs complete to 1
- This title reprinted hard and fast, and the trade is full of later printings correctly catalogued off the line — dealers list "first edition, 4th printing as indicated by the sequence 10 9 8 7 6 5 4," plus 10th, 11th and 14th printings, all of them 2023 and all of them not firsts
- Two census claims must be corrected
- Sprayed edges are NOT decisive
- First-printing copies are documented with black sprayed edges stenciled with white dragons to the fore-edge, and later printings are reported with plain white edges, so spraying is an early-printing indicator only — it does not by itself establish the first printing, and the number line governs
- Publisher imprint reads Red Tower Books / Entangled Publishing

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Rebecca Yarros |
| Publisher | Red Tower Books / Entangled Publishing |
| Year | 2023 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | True first is the US trade hardcover, Entangled: Red Tower Books, 2 May 2023 (ISBN 9781649374042), black paper-covered boards in a… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
True first is the US trade hardcover, Entangled: Red Tower Books, 2 May 2023 (ISBN 9781649374042), black paper-covered boards in a pictorial dust jacket. The decisive point is the copyright-page number line: a first printing runs complete to 1. This title reprinted hard and fast, and the trade is full of later printings correctly catalogued off the line — dealers list "first edition, 4th printing as indicated by the sequence 10 9 8 7 6 5 4," plus 10th, 11th and 14th printings, all of them 2023 and all of them not firsts. Two census claims must be corrected. (1) Sprayed edges are NOT decisive. First-printing copies are documented with black sprayed edges stenciled with white dragons to the fore-edge, and later printings are reported with plain white edges, so spraying is an early-printing indicator only — it does not by itself establish the first printing, and the number line governs. (2) The endpaper map is a feature of the trade hardcover generally, not a first-printing point; the "dragon endpapers" in the census note belong to the separate Limited/Holiday Edition. Remainder marks appear on later copies.

## Is this the true first?
US precedes: Red Tower Books (Entangled) is the originating publisher and the 2 May 2023 US hardcover is the true first. There is no original-language or foreign precedence question — the book is American and English-language. Piatkus (Little, Brown UK) issued the UK editions in 2023, collected as the first UK; sources consulted did not agree on the exact Piatkus release date, so no day-level UK claim is made here. UK variants in the trade include a Waterstones exclusive (ISBN 9780349441573, black boards, gilt spine titling, map endpapers, stencilled edges on all three sides) and a 2024 Piatkus paperback (9780349437019) — "first thus" only.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition documented. The confusion on this title comes from retailer and special editions rather than clubs, and several are actively mis-catalogued as firsts. The Limited/Holiday Special Edition (ISBN 9781649376169, 2023) is a different edition with new pictorial endpapers, black sprayed edges, gilt spine and two exclusive Xaden-POV bonus chapters — one dealer listing consulted offered it as "first edition overall," which it is not. Also distinct: the 2024 Limited Edition softcover (ISBN 9781649377371) with bonus content and sprayed edging. Reprint tells for the trade hardcover remain the number line and remainder marks.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, Book 1)* by Rebecca Yarros a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/fourth-wing-the-empyrean-book-1
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.