# Is "Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin" by Stephen Jay Gould a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin by Stephen Jay Gould (Harmony Books, 1996) is identified by: Harmony Books (Crown/Random House), New York, 1996. US Harmony 'Full House' and UK Cape 'Life's Grandeur' both appeared in 1996; the Cape edition is a distinct first-thus with added material.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Harmony Books (Crown/Random House), New York, 1996
- First edition, first printing carries the number line reading to 1 and a priced first-issue jacket
- The UK edition was retitled Life's Grandeur (Jonathan Cape, 1996) with an added eight-page 'A Baseball Primer for British Readers' introduction
- Publisher imprint reads Harmony Books
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Stephen Jay Gould |
| Publisher | Harmony Books |
| Year | 1996 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Harmony Books (Crown/Random House), New York, 1996 |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
Harmony Books (Crown/Random House), New York, 1996. First edition, first printing carries the number line reading to 1 and a priced first-issue jacket. The UK edition was retitled Life's Grandeur (Jonathan Cape, 1996) with an added eight-page 'A Baseball Primer for British Readers' introduction.

## Is this the true first?
US Harmony 'Full House' and UK Cape 'Life's Grandeur' both appeared in 1996; the Cape edition is a distinct first-thus with added material. Precedence between the two is effectively simultaneous, so identify by title and imprint rather than asserting one as the sole true first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No prominent book-club edition point of concern.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin* by Stephen Jay Gould a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/full-house-the-spread-of-excellence-from-plato-to-darwin
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-03.