# Is "On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen" by Harold McGee a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1984) is identified by: Census claim confirmed. US original; the Scribner's 1984 New York edition is the true first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition: Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1984
- ISBN 0-684-18132-0; approximately xviii + 684 pp., illustrated
- Identification runs on Scribner's post-1972 number row, which carries a letter/letter manufacturer-and-binding code at its centre — the first printing shows the complete row with the "1" present, in the form 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 [code] 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2; the lowest surviving number gives the printing, so any copy whose row begins at 3 or higher is a later printing
- Binding: publisher's blue cloth lettered in gilt on the spine, with a red top stain
- Issued in a pictorial dust jacket, priced at the flap — a first printing in a price-clipped jacket cannot be confirmed as unclipped-issue by the jacket alone
- Publisher imprint reads Charles Scribner's Sons
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Harold McGee |
| Publisher | Charles Scribner's Sons |
| Year | 1984 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition: Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1984 |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Census claim confirmed. First edition: Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1984; ISBN 0-684-18132-0; approximately xviii + 684 pp., illustrated. Identification runs on Scribner's post-1972 number row, which carries a letter/letter manufacturer-and-binding code at its centre — the first printing shows the complete row with the "1" present, in the form 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 [code] 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2; the lowest surviving number gives the printing, so any copy whose row begins at 3 or higher is a later printing. Binding: publisher's blue cloth lettered in gilt on the spine, with a red top stain. Issued in a pictorial dust jacket, priced at the flap — a first printing in a price-clipped jacket cannot be confirmed as unclipped-issue by the jacket alone.

## Is this the true first?
US original; the Scribner's 1984 New York edition is the true first. The first British edition is George Allen & Unwin, London, 1986 — a genuine separate edition (the book took the 1986 André Simon award) but subsequent to the US, and collected only as the first UK. FIRST-THUS TRAP: the 2004 Scribner "On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, Completely Revised and Updated" is a substantially rewritten book, not a reprint of 1984 — it is a first thus. The 2004 UK issue retitled McGee on Food & Cooking is likewise a separate first thus.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented for the 1984 Scribner's hardcover. The routine mislisting is the 1997 Fireside/Scribner trade paperback reissue (ISBN 0-684-80001-2), which carries the 1984 text and is frequently offered as a "first edition" — it is a later-format reprint, not a first. Any hardcover whose number row lacks the "1" is a Scribner's later printing regardless of the 1984 title-page date.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen* by Harold McGee a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/on-food-and-cooking-the-science-and-lore-of-the-kitchen
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.