# Is "Pylon" by William Faulkner a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Pylon by William Faulkner (Harrison Smith and Robert Haas, New York, 1935) is identified by: Census claim confirmed. The US edition (Harrison Smith and Robert Haas, New York, published 25 March 1935) is the true first and precedes the UK edition.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The first edition was issued in two simultaneous forms, both collected as first printings
- The trade issue is bound in dark cobalt-blue cloth with the spine and upper cover stamped in gilt within a horizontal black band, with a black top stain; the copyright page of the first printing carries the February 1935 printing date and no later printing statement
- The pictorial jacket should be present and priced at the flap; dealers describe the first-issue jacket as carrying the correct titles on the rear panel
- The signed limited issue is limited to 310 numbered copies signed by Faulkner, bound in quarter blue cloth over silver foil-covered boards with a blue airplane stamped on the front board, spine lettered in silver, silver top edge, and issued in the publisher's paper-covered slipcase (slipcases are frequently absent)
- Note that dealers cite conflicting Petersen numbers for the trade issue (A16b and A17.1a are both in circulation), so the bibliography citation should not be relied on alone
- Publisher imprint reads Harrison Smith and Robert Haas, New York
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | William Faulkner |
| Publisher | Harrison Smith and Robert Haas, New York |
| Year | 1935 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The first edition was issued in two simultaneous forms, both collected as first printings |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Census claim confirmed. The first edition was issued in two simultaneous forms, both collected as first printings. The trade issue is bound in dark cobalt-blue cloth with the spine and upper cover stamped in gilt within a horizontal black band, with a black top stain; the copyright page of the first printing carries the February 1935 printing date and no later printing statement. The pictorial jacket should be present and priced at the flap; dealers describe the first-issue jacket as carrying the correct titles on the rear panel. The signed limited issue is limited to 310 numbered copies signed by Faulkner, bound in quarter blue cloth over silver foil-covered boards with a blue airplane stamped on the front board, spine lettered in silver, silver top edge, and issued in the publisher's paper-covered slipcase (slipcases are frequently absent). Note that dealers cite conflicting Petersen numbers for the trade issue (A16b and A17.1a are both in circulation), so the bibliography citation should not be relied on alone.

## Is this the true first?
The US edition (Harrison Smith and Robert Haas, New York, published 25 March 1935) is the true first and precedes the UK edition. Chatto & Windus, London, published its edition later in 1935 in a reported printing of 2,900 copies; it is the first English edition and is collected in its own right, but it does not compete with the US issue for precedence. Both the 310-copy signed limited issue and the trade issue are Smith & Haas 1935 firsts — the limited does not follow the trade.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No contemporary book-club issue of Pylon is documented in the sources consulted. Later reprints under other imprints carry their own publisher's imprint on the spine and title page and lack the black-banded gilt stamping and black top stain of the 1935 trade binding.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Pylon* by William Faulkner a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/pylon
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.