# Is "Radio Free Albemuth" by Philip K. Dick a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Radio Free Albemuth by Philip K. Dick (Arbor House, 1985) is identified by: First printing carries the full number line "10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1" on the copyright page — the operative test; any copy whose line has been stripped of the terminal 1 is a later printing. US posthumous original; the census claim is correct.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First printing carries the full number line "10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1" on the copyright page — the operative test; any copy whose line has been stripped of the terminal 1 is a later printing
- Quarter navy cloth over boards, spine lettered in light blue; collation [10], 3-214, [2] pp.; ISBN 0877957622
- Jacket art by Ron Walotsky, jacket design by Dorothy Wachtenheim, price present at the front flap
- No first-state text errors are documented
- Publisher imprint reads Arbor House
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Philip K. Dick |
| Publisher | Arbor House |
| Year | 1985 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First printing carries the full number line "10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1" on the copyright page — the operative test; any copy whose line has been… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
First printing carries the full number line "10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1" on the copyright page — the operative test; any copy whose line has been stripped of the terminal 1 is a later printing. Quarter navy cloth over boards, spine lettered in light blue; collation [10], 3-214, [2] pp.; ISBN 0877957622. Jacket art by Ron Walotsky, jacket design by Dorothy Wachtenheim, price present at the front flap. No first-state text errors are documented.

## Is this the true first?
US posthumous original; the census claim is correct. Written in 1976 and set aside after Dick reworked the material into VALIS; Arbor House acquired it in 1985 and published it from the corrected typescript Dick had given his friend Tim Powers. There is no earlier edition in any territory and no original-language precedence issue. The first British publications both come two years later and are true seconds: the Grafton paperback (London, 1987) and the Severn House hardcover (London, 1987).

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
A Science Fiction Book Club hardcover followed in 1986 using the same Walotsky jacket art, and it is routinely miscatalogued online as "Arbor House 1985" — this is the main trap. Tells: no Arbor House number line on the copyright page, no price at the jacket front flap, a blind-stamped device at the rear board, and a smaller, lighter bulk. The Avon paperback (1987) and Vintage trade paperback (1998) are plainly imprinted reprints.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Radio Free Albemuth* by Philip K. Dick a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/radio-free-albemuth
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.