# Is "Jonah's Gourd Vine" by Zora Neale Hurston a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Jonah's Gourd Vine by Zora Neale Hurston (J. B. Lippincott, 1934) is identified by: Bound in publisher's pale green cloth stamped in black; 8vo; 316 pp; with an introduction by Fannie Hurst. The true first is the US edition: J.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Bound in publisher's pale green cloth stamped in black
- 316 pp; with an introduction by Fannie Hurst
- Lippincott's practice from roughly 1925 was inconsistent about printing a first-edition statement but consistent about always noting later printings (often called "impressions") on the copyright page — so the first-printing test here is a copyright page free of any impression or printing statement
- The pictorial dust jacket depicts scenes from the novel and carries a Carl Van Vechten blurb; the jacket is very scarce and a priced jacket with the price present at the flap is the unclipped state
- The green cloth is markedly light-sensitive: faded spines and sunned topstains are ubiquitous and are condition traits, not printing points
- Caveat: the exact copyright-page wording of the first printing could not be confirmed against a second independent source, so rely on the absence of an impression statement rather than on any expected positive statement
- Publisher imprint reads J. B. Lippincott

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Zora Neale Hurston |
| Publisher | J. B. Lippincott |
| Year | 1934 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Bound in publisher's pale green cloth stamped in black |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Bound in publisher's pale green cloth stamped in black; 8vo; 316 pp; with an introduction by Fannie Hurst. Lippincott's practice from roughly 1925 was inconsistent about printing a first-edition statement but consistent about always noting later printings (often called "impressions") on the copyright page — so the first-printing test here is a copyright page free of any impression or printing statement. The pictorial dust jacket depicts scenes from the novel and carries a Carl Van Vechten blurb; the jacket is very scarce and a priced jacket with the price present at the flap is the unclipped state. The green cloth is markedly light-sensitive: faded spines and sunned topstains are ubiquitous and are condition traits, not printing points. Caveat: the exact copyright-page wording of the first printing could not be confirmed against a second independent source, so rely on the absence of an impression statement rather than on any expected positive statement.

## Is this the true first?
The true first is the US edition: J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, 1934 — Hurston's first novel. A London Duckworth 1934 issue is recorded in reference bibliography, but that record could not be corroborated against a second independent source and its priority relative to Lippincott is not established; treat the Lippincott as the true first and any Duckworth copy as the British issue.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No contemporaneous book-club issue is documented in the sources consulted. Later collected reprints are plainly stated and pose no confusion (G. K. Hall 1971; Perennial Library 1987; HarperCollins/Harper Perennial from 1990; Virago in the UK from 1998; a Quality Paperback Book Club omnibus of 1990 pairs the novel with Mules and Men and Their Eyes Were Watching God).

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Jonah's Gourd Vine* by Zora Neale Hurston a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/jonahs-gourd-vine
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.