# Is "Red Harvest" by Dashiell Hammett a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett (Alfred A. Knopf, 1929) is identified by: Knopf, New York, 1929 first edition of Hammett's first novel, with no later-printing statement on the copyright page (early Knopf practice); the true second printing followed in March 1930. The US Knopf 1929 printing is the true first; the London Knopf issue follows.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1929 first edition of Hammett's first novel, with no later-printing statement on the copyright page (early Knopf practice); the true second printing followed in March 1930
- Title-page printed in orange and black with an orange skull-and-crossbones vignette
- Bound in cloth stamped in yellow, the front cover carrying the skull-and-crossbones device within a black single-rule border and the spine lettered in five panels in yellow and black; the top edge of the text block is stained green, and the Borzoi device is present
- The first-state jacket carries the plot summary on the rear panel, with the printed price present on the flap; a later jacket state substitutes roughly seventeen lines of review blurbs (from sources such as The Outlook, The Bookman, and The Chicago Post) on the rear panel
- Publisher imprint reads Alfred A. Knopf
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Dashiell Hammett |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
| Year | 1929 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1929 first edition of Hammett's first novel, with no later-printing statement on the copyright page (early Knopf… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1929 first edition of Hammett's first novel, with no later-printing statement on the copyright page (early Knopf practice); the true second printing followed in March 1930. Title-page printed in orange and black with an orange skull-and-crossbones vignette. Bound in cloth stamped in yellow, the front cover carrying the skull-and-crossbones device within a black single-rule border and the spine lettered in five panels in yellow and black; the top edge of the text block is stained green, and the Borzoi device is present. The first-state jacket carries the plot summary on the rear panel, with the printed price present on the flap; a later jacket state substitutes roughly seventeen lines of review blurbs (from sources such as The Outlook, The Bookman, and The Chicago Post) on the rear panel.

## Is this the true first?
The US Knopf 1929 printing is the true first; the London Knopf issue follows. Bibliographer Richard Layman did not see the earliest plot-summary jacket and describes the later blurb jacket, so the summary-panel jacket represents the earliest issue state.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No early club edition; later reprints bear their own imprints. Absence of any printing notice, combined with the 1929 Knopf imprint, the green-stained top edge and the skull-and-crossbones stamping, identifies the first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Red Harvest* by Dashiell Hammett a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/red-harvest
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.