# Is "Noon Wine" by Katherine Anne Porter a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Noon Wine by Katherine Anne Porter (Schuman's, 1937) is identified by: The entire edition is a signed limited issue: 250 numbered copies, every copy signed by Porter, with the limitation and number appearing in the book — there was no separate trade issue, so a correct copy is by definition numbered and signed. Schuman's (Detroit), 1937, is the true first and the first separate/book appearance of the text — US-only, with no British edition and no original-language question.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The entire edition is a signed limited issue: 250 numbered copies, every copy signed by Porter, with the limitation and number appearing in the book — there was no separate trade issue, so a correct copy is by definition numbered and signed
- Copies are royal octavo (roughly 10-the printed price x 6-the printed price inches), bound in patterned cloth over boards with printed paper labels mounted to the spine and to the upper front cover, collating [4], 65, [3] pp., with the fore-edge untrimmed, and issued in the publisher's plain cardboard slipcase (described as paper-covered and, by one dealer, as green)
- One caution: a minority of dealer descriptions call the covering textured paper rather than cloth; three independent ABAA-grade descriptions agree on patterned cloth over boards, so cloth is the reading adopted here
- No dust jacket is called for — the slipcase is the issue state, and its presence, along with both labels intact, is the condition point
- There is no price point on this title: it was issued as a limited edition without a priced jacket
- Publisher imprint reads Schuman's
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Katherine Anne Porter |
| Publisher | Schuman's |
| Year | 1937 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The entire edition is a signed limited issue: 250 numbered copies, every copy signed by Porter, with the limitation and number appearing in… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The entire edition is a signed limited issue: 250 numbered copies, every copy signed by Porter, with the limitation and number appearing in the book — there was no separate trade issue, so a correct copy is by definition numbered and signed. Copies are royal octavo (roughly 10-the printed price x 6-the printed price inches), bound in patterned cloth over boards with printed paper labels mounted to the spine and to the upper front cover, collating [4], 65, [3] pp., with the fore-edge untrimmed, and issued in the publisher's plain cardboard slipcase (described as paper-covered and, by one dealer, as green). One caution: a minority of dealer descriptions call the covering textured paper rather than cloth; three independent ABAA-grade descriptions agree on patterned cloth over boards, so cloth is the reading adopted here. No dust jacket is called for — the slipcase is the issue state, and its presence, along with both labels intact, is the condition point. There is no price point on this title: it was issued as a limited edition without a priced jacket.

## Is this the true first?
Schuman's (Detroit), 1937, is the true first and the first separate/book appearance of the text — US-only, with no British edition and no original-language question. The trap to flag is the collected text: Noon Wine was gathered with 'Old Mortality' and the title story in Pale Horse, Pale Rider: Three Short Novels (Harcourt, Brace, New York, 1939), which is a genuine and collected first edition of THAT collection but only a 'first thus' for Noon Wine itself. The text also had a prior magazine appearance in Story in 1937 before the Schuman's issue; sources consulted disagree on the month, so the month is not stated. Porter preferred 'short novel' to 'novella' for these works.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue exists or could exist for the Schuman's edition — the whole printing was 250 numbered, signed copies with no trade issue. The reprint trap runs through the collection instead: the 1939 Harcourt, Brace Pale Horse, Pale Rider and its many later printings, Modern Library and paperback issues carry the text but are not the first separate edition. Any unnumbered, unsigned copy purporting to be the Schuman's Noon Wine is not right.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Noon Wine* by Katherine Anne Porter a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/noon-wine
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.