Is My Learning from Las Vegas a First Edition?

The points of issue

• The true first is The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1972, a large-format book (folio, roughly 10.5 x 14 in / 354 x 269 mm) elaborately designed by Muriel Cooper, bound in dark charcoal/grey cloth stamped in gold on the boards and spine and issued in a publisher's printed glassine dust jacket (printed in black and red, and very often chipped, browned, or lacking owing to its fragility)
• Textual points: it opens with 'A Significance for A&P Parking Lots' and contains 'Essays in the Ugly and Ordinary: Some Decorated Sheds' with Venturi & Rauch's own work — material dropped from all later editions
• The large-format Cooper design is the point that separates the 1972 first from the smaller 1977 revised paperback

How The MIT Press marked a first edition

• Copyright page carries a descending number line ('10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1'); the lowest number present indicates the printing — a '1' = first printing. This is MIT Press's standard modern convention.

Full The MIT Press first-edition guide →

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Check for a number line or dated printing — the lowest number present is the printing; a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the tell.
3. Verify this is the US true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
4. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
5. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

US only: MIT Press, 1972 large-format first edition is the high spot. The 1977 'revised edition' is a smaller paperback redesigned by Denise Scott Brown with a deliberately deadpan layout — a different, later edition, not the true first.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

MIT Press issued a facsimile of the 1972 original in 2017 (ISBN 978-0-262-03696-2) that reproduces the large-format design but adds a new Denise Scott Brown preface and a modern ISBN/printing history — identify it as the facsimile reprint, not the 1972 first. No traditional book-club edition is documented.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Learning from Las Vegas a first edition?

A first edition of Learning from Las Vegas by Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, Steven Izenour (The MIT Press) is identified by: The true first is The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1972, a large-format book (folio, roughly 10.5 x 14 in / 354 x 269 mm) elaborately designed by Muriel Cooper, bound in dark charcoal/grey cloth stamped in gold on the boards and spine and issued in a publisher's printed glassine dust jacket (printed in black and red, and very often chipped, browned, or lacking owing to its fragility).

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A stated first edition, a number line ending in 1, or a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the key. US only: MIT Press, 1972 large-format first edition is the high spot.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

MIT Press issued a facsimile of the 1972 original in 2017 (ISBN 978-0-262-03696-2) that reproduces the large-format design but adds a new Denise Scott Brown preface and a modern ISBN/printing history — identify it as the facsimile reprint, not the 1972 first. No traditional book-club edition is documented.

I have a first edition of Learning from Las Vegas — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.