# Is "How German Is It (Wie Deutsch Ist Es)" by Walter Abish a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of How German Is It (Wie Deutsch Ist Es) by Walter Abish (New Directions, 1980) is identified by: New Directions imprint, 1980. The US New Directions edition of 1980 is the true first; it won the inaugural 1981 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- New Directions imprint, 1980
- Issued simultaneously in clothbound and in pictorial printed wrappers (New Directions Paperbook)
- The cloth issue carries a dust jacket with the printed price on the flap; the wrappers issue is a printed-paper softcover
- Confirm the New Directions printing statement on the copyright page
- Publisher imprint reads New Directions
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Walter Abish |
| Publisher | New Directions |
| Year | 1980 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | New Directions imprint, 1980 |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
New Directions imprint, 1980. Issued simultaneously in clothbound and in pictorial printed wrappers (New Directions Paperbook). The cloth issue carries a dust jacket with the printed price on the flap; the wrappers issue is a printed-paper softcover. Confirm the New Directions printing statement on the copyright page.

## Is this the true first?
The US New Directions edition of 1980 is the true first; it won the inaugural 1981 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue. The key distinction is the clothbound issue versus the simultaneously published paperbound trade issue, both dated 1980.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *How German Is It (Wie Deutsch Ist Es)* by Walter Abish a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/how-german-is-it-wie-deutsch-ist-es
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.