# Is "Raintree County" by Ross Lockridge Jr. a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Raintree County by Ross Lockridge Jr. (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1948) is identified by: Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1948. US Houghton Mifflin (Boston) 1948 is the true first, and the census claim is confirmed.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1948
- The primary point is the title page: the first printing carries the date "1948" on the title page, and the copyright page carries both 1947 and 1948
- This follows Houghton Mifflin's practice of the period — the date in Arabic numerals on the title page of first printings, removed for subsequent printings
- Octavo, [xiv], 1066 pp, with two maps and pictorial endpapers of faux nineteenth-century wood engravings (the frontispiece map's Shawmucky River traces the initials JWS)
- Bound in green cloth, a raintree stamped in gold and black on the front board, gold lettering blocked in black on the spine, yellow topstain; no book-club blindstamp dot at the lower rear board
- First-issue jacket: the price is present at the top of the front flap, the back panel carries a photograph of the author over a three-paragraph biography whose third paragraph states that he "has four children," and there is no mention anywhere on the jacket of the Book-of-the-Month Club
- Publisher imprint reads Houghton Mifflin Company

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Ross Lockridge Jr. |
| Publisher | Houghton Mifflin Company |
| Year | 1948 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1948 |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1948. The primary point is the title page: the first printing carries the date "1948" on the title page, and the copyright page carries both 1947 and 1948. This follows Houghton Mifflin's practice of the period — the date in Arabic numerals on the title page of first printings, removed for subsequent printings. Octavo, [xiv], 1066 pp, with two maps and pictorial endpapers of faux nineteenth-century wood engravings (the frontispiece map's Shawmucky River traces the initials JWS). Bound in green cloth, a raintree stamped in gold and black on the front board, gold lettering blocked in black on the spine, yellow topstain; no book-club blindstamp dot at the lower rear board. First-issue jacket: the price is present at the top of the front flap, the back panel carries a photograph of the author over a three-paragraph biography whose third paragraph states that he "has four children," and there is no mention anywhere on the jacket of the Book-of-the-Month Club. Textual point: first printings carry the question "Wasn't Jesus God's?" on line 3 of page 152 — the words were cut shortly after the first printing and later restored, so the point corroborates but must not be used alone. Two further cautions: a later unstated printing exists whose jacket carries the same flap price and whose back-panel biography still makes no reference to Lockridge's death, so the jacket cannot settle the question; and tan-bound copies are recorded from early printings but have not been observed with 1948 on the title page. Check the title-page date first, then the rear board and jacket.

## Is this the true first?
US Houghton Mifflin (Boston) 1948 is the true first, and the census claim is confirmed. The book was published on January 5, 1948; Lockridge died by suicide on March 6, 1948, roughly two months later, at 33 — the single lifetime edition follows from that. The precedence problem on this title is not UK-vs-US but trade-vs-club: Raintree County was the Book-of-the-Month Club Main Selection, chosen before publication, and the club issue was produced concurrently from the same setting, so trade firsts and club copies circulate side by side and must be separated on the physical points above. The first printing was a very large one (reported at 50,000 copies), so a surviving trade first is not a rarity. No UK edition was corroborated in the sources consulted and none is described here.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Book-of-the-Month Club copies are the dominant trap on this title and were made concurrently from the Houghton Mifflin setting. The tells are: a blindstamped dot (or small blind device) at the lower rear board, which the trade issue does not have; and a jacket that mentions the Book-of-the-Month Club selection and/or lacks the price at the front flap. The club printing does not carry 1948 on the title page. Because the BOMC objected to the text before publication and three words were cut after roughly 5,000 copies had been printed, the page-152 reading also varies across early copies — treat it as corroboration of an early state, not as proof of the trade first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Raintree County* by Ross Lockridge Jr. a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/raintree-county
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.