# Is "NOS4A2" by Joe Hill a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of NOS4A2 by Joe Hill (William Morrow, New York, 2013) is identified by: First printing is the William Morrow (New York) hardcover published 30 April 2013, ISBN 978-0-06-220057-0, and carries BOTH a stated 'First Edition' on the copyright page and the complete number line — dealers describe it as 'Stated First Edition/First Printing with the complete number line' and 'full number line as required'. US William Morrow, New York, 30 April 2013 is the true first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First printing is the William Morrow (New York) hardcover published 30 April 2013, ISBN 978-0-06-220057-0, and carries BOTH a stated 'First Edition' on the copyright page and the complete number line — dealers describe it as 'Stated First Edition/First Printing with the complete number line' and 'full number line as required'
- The jacket should be priced with the price present at the front flap; a price-clipped or remainder-marked copy is not the wanted state
- The book contains more than fifteen interior illustrations by Gabriel Rodríguez, the Locke & Key artist, and includes a special publisher's page frequently used for signed copies — the presence of that page is normal to the first printing and is not itself a signature point
- Publisher imprint reads William Morrow, New York
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Joe Hill |
| Publisher | William Morrow, New York |
| Year | 2013 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First printing is the William Morrow (New York) hardcover published 30 April 2013, ISBN 978-0-06-220057-0, and carries BOTH a stated 'First… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First printing is the William Morrow (New York) hardcover published 30 April 2013, ISBN 978-0-06-220057-0, and carries BOTH a stated 'First Edition' on the copyright page and the complete number line — dealers describe it as 'Stated First Edition/First Printing with the complete number line' and 'full number line as required'. The jacket should be priced with the price present at the front flap; a price-clipped or remainder-marked copy is not the wanted state. The book contains more than fifteen interior illustrations by Gabriel Rodríguez, the Locke & Key artist, and includes a special publisher's page frequently used for signed copies — the presence of that page is normal to the first printing and is not itself a signature point.

## Is this the true first?
US William Morrow, New York, 30 April 2013 is the true first. The UK Gollancz (London) edition was RETITLED 'NOS4R2' — the American vanity-plate reading of 'Nosferatu' does not work in British pronunciation — and was released later, in May 2013, so it does not compete for precedence despite sharing the year. Both are collected: the Morrow NOS4A2 as the true first, and the Gollancz NOS4R2 as the first UK edition under its variant title. The Gollancz first printing is a 689-page octavo with a black spine lettered in green metallic, ISBN 978-0-575-13067-8, with the publisher's number sequence present on the copyright page.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition documented in the sources consulted. Tells for a non-first: an incomplete number line, absence of the stated 'First Edition' on the Morrow copyright page, a remainder mark, or a price-clipped flap. Note the title trap in both directions — a UK-titled NOS4R2 copy is never the true first, and Gollancz has also issued the book under the American NOS4A2 title in later printings, which are neither the US first nor the UK first-state title.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *NOS4A2* by Joe Hill a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/nos4a2
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.