# Is "Norstrilia" by Cordwainer Smith (Paul M. A. Linebarger) a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Norstrilia by Cordwainer Smith (Paul M. A. Linebarger) (Ballantine Books, New York, 1975) is identified by: Paperback original in pictorial wrappers, Ballantine catalog number 24366, ISBN 0-345-24366-8, 277 pages, published February 1975 with cover art by Gray Morrow. US paperback original is the true first of the complete novel as Smith wrote it, confirming the census claim.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Paperback original in pictorial wrappers, Ballantine catalog number 24366, ISBN 0-345-24366-8, 277 pages, published February 1975 with cover art by Gray Morrow
- The first printing carries a stated first-printing line on the copyright page giving February 1975; there is no number line, so identification rests on that statement together with the 24366 catalog number and the price printed on the front wrapper
- Later Ballantine and Del Rey reprints are told apart by a changed catalog number and a changed wrapper price
- Because this is a paperback original, condition of the wrappers rather than any jacket is the relevant physical point
- Publisher imprint reads Ballantine Books, New York
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Cordwainer Smith (Paul M. A. Linebarger) |
| Publisher | Ballantine Books, New York |
| Year | 1975 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Paperback original in pictorial wrappers, Ballantine catalog number 24366, ISBN 0-345-24366-8, 277 pages, published February 1975 with… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Paperback original in pictorial wrappers, Ballantine catalog number 24366, ISBN 0-345-24366-8, 277 pages, published February 1975 with cover art by Gray Morrow. The first printing carries a stated first-printing line on the copyright page giving February 1975; there is no number line, so identification rests on that statement together with the 24366 catalog number and the price printed on the front wrapper. Later Ballantine and Del Rey reprints are told apart by a changed catalog number and a changed wrapper price. Because this is a paperback original, condition of the wrappers rather than any jacket is the relevant physical point.

## Is this the true first?
US paperback original is the true first of the complete novel as Smith wrote it, confirming the census claim. The novel had earlier been split by his publisher into two shorter volumes, each a Pyramid Books paperback original and each collected in its own right: The Planet Buyer (Pyramid Books, New York, 1964, R-1084, cover by John Schoenherr) and The Underpeople (Pyramid Books, New York, November 1968, X-1910, cover by Jack Gaughan). Those are separate abridged/split texts, not earlier editions of Norstrilia. The NESFA Press hardcover (Framingham, MA, 1994) is the first hardcover but a "first thus": it adds further revisions and corrections plus an appendix of variant texts, and that 1994 text — not the 1975 text — is what the 2008 Baen omnibus We, the Underpeople reprints.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club printing of the 1975 Ballantine paperback original is documented; mass-market paperback originals of this period were not club-issued. The practical reprint tell is a changed Ballantine/Del Rey catalog number and a changed price printed on the wrapper, since the copyright page of later printings drops or supersedes the February 1975 first-printing statement. The 1994 NESFA hardcover is a small-press edition, not a club book.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Norstrilia* by Cordwainer Smith (Paul M. A. Linebarger) a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/norstrilia
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.