# Is "Heart-Shaped Box" by Joe Hill a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (William Morrow, New York, 2007) is identified by: The US first edition is William Morrow (HarperCollins), New York, published 13 February 2007 (ISBN 978-0-06-114793-7, 376 pp.). US precedes UK — the census note's 'simultaneous' is NOT supported and is corrected here.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The US first edition is William Morrow (HarperCollins), New York, published 13 February 2007 (ISBN 978-0-06-114793-7, 376 pp.)
- First printings are identified on the copyright page by a complete number line in which 1 is present
- Sources conflict on the sequence itself — several dealers report the Morrow line as '1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2', while others describe simply a 'full number line to 1' or '1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10' — so the operative and universally agreed test is that the 1 is present, not the direction of the line; do not reject a copy on the direction of the sequence alone
- Jacket must be present and priced at the flap, with the jacket ISBN matching the book block
- An uncorrected proof / advance reading copy in wrappers exists and is not the first edition
- Signed copies are common enough that a signature alone establishes nothing about the printing — check the number line
- Publisher imprint reads William Morrow, New York

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Joe Hill |
| Publisher | William Morrow, New York |
| Year | 2007 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The US first edition is William Morrow (HarperCollins), New York, published 13 February 2007 (ISBN 978-0-06-114793-7, 376 pp.) |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The US first edition is William Morrow (HarperCollins), New York, published 13 February 2007 (ISBN 978-0-06-114793-7, 376 pp.). First printings are identified on the copyright page by a complete number line in which 1 is present. Sources conflict on the sequence itself — several dealers report the Morrow line as '1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2', while others describe simply a 'full number line to 1' or '1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10' — so the operative and universally agreed test is that the 1 is present, not the direction of the line; do not reject a copy on the direction of the sequence alone. Jacket must be present and priced at the flap, with the jacket ISBN matching the book block. An uncorrected proof / advance reading copy in wrappers exists and is not the first edition. Signed copies are common enough that a signature alone establishes nothing about the printing — check the number line.

## Is this the true first?
US precedes UK — the census note's 'simultaneous' is NOT supported and is corrected here. William Morrow, New York, 13 February 2007 is the true first; the UK first is Gollancz (Orion), London, reported as 15 March 2007 (ISBN 9780752889184), roughly a month later. Both are collected: the Gollancz hardcover is the first UK edition and first impression, identified by its own full number line, and Gollancz additionally issued a signed slipcased limited state. Separately, Subterranean Press published a limited edition in 2011 — 300 cloth copies numbered 201-500 signed by Hill; a deluxe issue of 200 numbered 1-200, signed, adding the deleted first chapter as an appendix plus an exclusive author's afterword and two two-color illustrations; and 15 leatherbound copies lettered A-O in a custom traycase. A Lividian Publications signed slipcased limited of 1,750 followed in 2022. The census note is correct that the Subterranean issue is a separate later collected state, not the first edition.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition is documented; dealers routinely note first printings as 'not book club.' The practical traps are (a) later Morrow printings — a second printing was announced 14 April 2007 and released that May — which are physically indistinguishable from the first apart from the number line; (b) the UK Gollancz first, which is a legitimate first UK edition but is often offered as 'the' first edition; and (c) the 2011 Subterranean and 2022 Lividian limiteds, which are signed, numbered and handsome, and are the most frequently mistaken-for-first states in the trade. On any suspect copy the standard quick checks apply — a blind stamp on the rear board and an unpriced jacket flap point away from a trade first printing.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Heart-Shaped Box* by Joe Hill a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/heart-shaped-box
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.