# Is "Go Set a Watchman" by Harper Lee a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee (Harper, 2015) is identified by: The US first printing states "First Edition" on the copyright page together with a full printing number line ending in 1 (10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1) and a year line beginning with 15 (15 16 17 18 19); on later printings the low digits drop off the printing line and the year line advances. Simultaneous publication on 14 July 2015: Harper (New York) in the US and William Heinemann (London) in the UK.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The US first printing states "First Edition" on the copyright page together with a full printing number line ending in 1 (10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1) and a year line beginning with 15 (15 16 17 18 19); on later printings the low digits drop off the printing line and the year line advances
- Bound in black textured paper-covered boards with a black paper spine lettered in bright silver
- 8vo, 278 pp.; ISBN 978-0-06-240985-0
- The first-issue jacket shows a tree overhanging a railroad track with an approaching train on the front panel and a Maycomb, Alabama street scene with the "every man's watchman, is his conscience" line on the back panel; it carries no review quotations and no bestseller banner, and the price is present at the flap
- Published 14 July 2015 in a very large first printing, so the edition statement and both number lines — not scarcity — are the whole test
- Publisher imprint reads Harper
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Harper Lee |
| Publisher | Harper |
| Year | 2015 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The US first printing states "First Edition" on the copyright page together with a full printing number line ending in 1 (10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The US first printing states "First Edition" on the copyright page together with a full printing number line ending in 1 (10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1) and a year line beginning with 15 (15 16 17 18 19); on later printings the low digits drop off the printing line and the year line advances. Bound in black textured paper-covered boards with a black paper spine lettered in bright silver; 8vo, 278 pp.; ISBN 978-0-06-240985-0. The first-issue jacket shows a tree overhanging a railroad track with an approaching train on the front panel and a Maycomb, Alabama street scene with the "every man's watchman, is his conscience" line on the back panel; it carries no review quotations and no bestseller banner, and the price is present at the flap. Published 14 July 2015 in a very large first printing, so the edition statement and both number lines — not scarcity — are the whole test.

## Is this the true first?
Simultaneous publication on 14 July 2015: Harper (New York) in the US and William Heinemann (London) in the UK. Neither precedes the other; both are collected, and the US Harper printing is the standard collected first. The Heinemann first is a separate book with its own points: "First published in Great Britain by William Heinemann in 2015" on the copyright page, an odd-then-even number line (1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2), light blue boards lettered in black on the spine, and a bird-silhouette jacket front with the faint italic line "BY THE AUTHOR OF TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD". Fedpo additionally records a production defect affecting part of the initial UK run, in which pages 252, 261, 265, 268, 272 and 277 are cut short at the foot, losing the page numbers and the closing lines of text. The novel is an earlier-written manuscript published after To Kill a Mockingbird, so it is a first edition of its own text, not a first thus.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No distinct US book-club binding is documented for this title in the sources consulted. The practical trap is a later printing of the same trade edition: the "First Edition" slug alone is not sufficient — confirm the printing line still ends in 1 and the year line still begins with 15. A second printing is told by the printing line no longer reaching 1.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Go Set a Watchman* by Harper Lee a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/go-set-a-watchman
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.