# Is "It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis (Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1935) is identified by: The first printing has "First Edition" stated on the copyright page — Doubleday, Doran's practice in this period, and the decisive point. The US Doubleday, Doran 1935 edition is the true first — confirmed; Bauman states "First edition" on the copyright page and cites Bruccoli & Clark 218.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The first printing has "First Edition" stated on the copyright page — Doubleday, Doran's practice in this period, and the decisive point
- Bound in original decorated black cloth, the front panel stamped in blind and the spine panel stamped in gilt; top edge stained yellow; cream endpapers; deckle edges
- Octavo, collating [1-6] [1] 2-458 pages
- The jacket should be a priced jacket, with the price present at the front flap
- Referenced as Bruccoli & Clark 218
- BINDING CAUTION: black cloth is the trade first
- Publisher imprint reads Doubleday, Doran & Company

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Sinclair Lewis |
| Publisher | Doubleday, Doran & Company |
| Year | 1935 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The first printing has "First Edition" stated on the copyright page — Doubleday, Doran's practice in this period, and the decisive point |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
The first printing has "First Edition" stated on the copyright page — Doubleday, Doran's practice in this period, and the decisive point. Bound in original decorated black cloth, the front panel stamped in blind and the spine panel stamped in gilt; top edge stained yellow; cream endpapers; deckle edges. Octavo, collating [1-6] [1] 2-458 pages. The jacket should be a priced jacket, with the price present at the front flap. Referenced as Bruccoli & Clark 218. BINDING CAUTION: black cloth is the trade first. Descriptions circulating online of a full blue cloth binding with a blind-stamped portrait medallion, blind-stamped column, and gilt facsimile signature do not describe the trade first and appear to belong to a different (later or uniform-set) issue — Bauman's trade first plus three further independent dealer copies consulted (JWK, Ken Sanders, Burnside) all describe black cloth with gilt spine.

## Is this the true first?
The US Doubleday, Doran 1935 edition is the true first — confirmed; Bauman states "First edition" on the copyright page and cites Bruccoli & Clark 218. Lewis wrote in English and was published in the US first, so no original-language question arises. The first UK edition is Jonathan Cape, London, 1935, published later the same year; it is separately collected and is seldom found with its jacket, which carries the British price at the foot of the front flap. Both editions are collected; the Doubleday, Doran has precedence. CAVEAT: I confirmed that both 1935 editions exist and that the US issue has precedence, but did not pin the exact Cape publication month against two independent authorities, so the intra-1935 interval is stated as "later the same year" rather than to a month.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The Sun Dial Press (Garden City, New York) issued a cheap reprint — also dated 1935, which is precisely the trap, since the matching year invites a misread. Sun Dial was Doubleday's reprint imprint: the Sun Dial title page and the absence of the "First Edition" copyright-page statement are the tells, and a 1935 date on a Sun Dial copy signifies nothing. A stated "First Edition" on a Doubleday, Doran copyright page remains the single decisive check. No signed limited issue of this title was documented in the sources consulted; Bauman expressly catalogues its inscribed copy as a trade first edition, not a signed limited edition, so inscribed and signed copies are trade firsts with an autograph, not a separate issue.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *It Can't Happen Here* by Sinclair Lewis a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/it-cant-happen-here
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.