# Is "House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City)" by Sarah J. Maas a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City) by Sarah J. Maas (Bloomsbury Publishing, New York, 2020) is identified by: Bloomsbury Publishing, New York, published 3 March 2020, hardcover in jacket, ISBN 978-1-63557-404-3, approx. Census claim confirmed on date and publisher, refuted on the sprayed-edges point.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Bloomsbury Publishing, New York, published 3 March 2020, hardcover in jacket, ISBN 978-1-63557-404-3, approx
- 803 pp., jacket art by Carlos Quevedo carrying the crescent-moon sigil, with illustrated endpapers
- The first printing is identified by the full number line 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 on the copyright page; dealers separate it on that alone, and a copy whose line no longer begins with 1 is a later impression of the same 2020 edition
- Copies of the US issue are additionally recorded with a stated 'First published in the United States 2020' on the copyright page alongside the complete number line
- The simultaneous UK issue — Bloomsbury, London, ISBN 978-1-4088-8441-6 — is also a hardback and is identified as a first UK edition by its own first-impression statement and number line; the two are separate firsts and should be catalogued as such
- Publisher imprint reads Bloomsbury Publishing, New York
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Sarah J. Maas |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing, New York |
| Year | 2020 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Bloomsbury Publishing, New York, published 3 March 2020, hardcover in jacket, ISBN 978-1-63557-404-3, approx |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Bloomsbury Publishing, New York, published 3 March 2020, hardcover in jacket, ISBN 978-1-63557-404-3, approx. 803 pp., jacket art by Carlos Quevedo carrying the crescent-moon sigil, with illustrated endpapers. The first printing is identified by the full number line 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 on the copyright page; dealers separate it on that alone, and a copy whose line no longer begins with 1 is a later impression of the same 2020 edition. Copies of the US issue are additionally recorded with a stated 'First published in the United States 2020' on the copyright page alongside the complete number line. The simultaneous UK issue — Bloomsbury, London, ISBN 978-1-4088-8441-6 — is also a hardback and is identified as a first UK edition by its own first-impression statement and number line; the two are separate firsts and should be catalogued as such.

## Is this the true first?
Census claim confirmed on date and publisher, refuted on the sprayed-edges point. Both the US issue (Bloomsbury Publishing, New York) and the UK issue (Bloomsbury, London) were published 3 March 2020 as hardbacks, so each is a first edition of its own territory and both are collected; the US issue is the one normally cited as 'the' first. The census's 'first printings with sprayed edges collected' is wrong and must not ship — see the reprint note; sprayed edges do not appear on the 2020 trade first in any form.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition is documented. The traps, in order of how often they mislead: (a) subscription-box and retailer-exclusive editions — the Fairyloot Crescent City exclusives, with redesigned jackets, foiled boards with character art, illustrated endpapers, foil-detailed slipcase and digitally sprayed fore-edges, did not ship until roughly March–April 2023, three years after publication, and the Illumicrate and other exclusives are likewise later; sprayed edges are therefore positive evidence AGAINST a 2020 first printing. (b) The Bloomsbury paperback of 2021. (c) Later adult-market reissues under fresh ISBNs (e.g. 978-1-5266-6355-9). (d) Ordinary later 2020 impressions, identical but for the missing 1 on the number line.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City)* by Sarah J. Maas a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/house-of-earth-and-blood-crescent-city
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.