# Is "Light Years" by James Salter a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Light Years by James Salter (Random House, 1975) is identified by: New York: Random House, 1975. US Random House (New York) 1975 is the true first, and the census claim is confirmed.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- New York: Random House, 1975
- The point is the copyright page: the first printing carries the words "First Edition" together with a number line whose lowest surviving digit is 2
- This is Random House's own convention for the period (roughly the early 1970s to 2002) — the "1" is never present on a first, and on this publisher's books of these years a number line running down to 1 indicates a later printing, not an earlier one
- Later printings drop the "First Edition" statement altogether
- Octavo, 308 pp
- Bound in a tan/wheat cloth spine over olive-green paper-covered boards, lettered on the spine
- Publisher imprint reads Random House

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | James Salter |
| Publisher | Random House |
| Year | 1975 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | New York: Random House, 1975 |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
New York: Random House, 1975. The point is the copyright page: the first printing carries the words "First Edition" together with a number line whose lowest surviving digit is 2. This is Random House's own convention for the period (roughly the early 1970s to 2002) — the "1" is never present on a first, and on this publisher's books of these years a number line running down to 1 indicates a later printing, not an earlier one. Later printings drop the "First Edition" statement altogether. Octavo, 308 pp. Bound in a tan/wheat cloth spine over olive-green paper-covered boards, lettered on the spine. Priced jacket: the price is present at the front flap and unclipped on an unsophisticated copy. Note that dealer descriptions of the spine lettering disagree (green-and-black in some, gilt in others) and the olive boards commonly fade toward gold, so the binding should not be used as the identifying point — check the copyright page.

## Is this the true first?
US Random House (New York) 1975 is the true first, and the census claim is confirmed. The first UK edition is The Bodley Head, London, 1976 (ISBN 0370106067), in blue cloth with gilt and a jacket designed by John Walsh; UK sales were slow and the edition is uncommon, but it is a year later and second in precedence. Both editions are collected — cite them as "first US" (Random House 1975) and "first UK" (Bodley Head 1976).

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No separate book-club issue of the 1975 Random House printing surfaced in the sources consulted. The live "first thus" trap is the reprint line: the Vintage International paperback (ISBN 0679740735) and subsequent Penguin Random House reissues are common and are not first editions despite occasionally being listed under the 1975 copyright date.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Light Years* by James Salter a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/light-years
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.