# Is "Red Planet: A Colonial Boy on Mars" by Robert A. Heinlein a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Red Planet: A Colonial Boy on Mars by Robert A. Heinlein (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1949) is identified by: First edition, first printing: Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1949. US original; Scribner's New York 1949 is the true first — the census claim is confirmed.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, first printing: Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1949
- The full title on the title page is "Red Planet: A Colonial Boy on Mars" — the census records the short form
- Identified by the Scribner house formula: a capital "A" on the copyright page together with the Scribner's seal
- Both must be present; the absence of the "A", the absence of the seal, or the presence of any added printing designation denotes a later printing
- Bound in black cloth stamped in red
- Illustrated by Clifford Geary
- Publisher imprint reads Charles Scribner's Sons

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Robert A. Heinlein |
| Publisher | Charles Scribner's Sons |
| Year | 1949 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, first printing: Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1949 |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
First edition, first printing: Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1949. The full title on the title page is "Red Planet: A Colonial Boy on Mars" — the census records the short form. Identified by the Scribner house formula: a capital "A" on the copyright page together with the Scribner's seal. Both must be present; the absence of the "A", the absence of the seal, or the presence of any added printing designation denotes a later printing. Bound in black cloth stamped in red. Illustrated by Clifford Geary. Priced jacket / price present at the front flap on the first-printing jacket; an unclipped first-printing jacket retains that flap price. Heinlein's third Scribner juvenile.

## Is this the true first?
US original; Scribner's New York 1949 is the true first — the census claim is confirmed. The first British edition is Gollancz (London) 1963, 211 pages, red cloth lettered in gilt on the spine, jacket art by Alan Breese; this is confirmed as the first UK edition by James Cummins Bookseller and Fantastic Literature, and is a later, secondary edition. Both are collected; the Scribner carries precedence. FIRST-THUS TRAP: Scribner's editor Alice Dalgleish required substantial cuts before publication — chiefly to gun ownership and licensing, slang and mild expletives, references to clothing and bodily functions, the protagonist's characterization, and passages critical of authority. Del Rey published the restored, uncut text in January 1990. That 1990 Del Rey is the first appearance of Heinlein's original text but is emphatically not the first edition of the book; catalogues that call it a "first" are describing a first thus.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Scribner book-club printings are the standard trap for this title. The reliable tells: the copyright page lacks the "A" and Scribner seal combination (collectors also report book-club copies that retain an "A" while omitting the seal and adding printer information at the foot of the copyright page, so the seal — not the letter alone — is the safer check); a blindstamped device (dot, circle, square or similar) is usually impressed into the rear board near the spine; the boards are bulkier and the paper cheaper; and the jacket lacks the flap price. Later Scribner trade printings drop the "A" entirely.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Red Planet: A Colonial Boy on Mars* by Robert A. Heinlein a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/red-planet-a-colonial-boy-on-mars
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.