# Is "Serenade" by James M. Cain a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Serenade by James M. Cain (Alfred A. Knopf, 1937) is identified by: Knopf's practice from 1933/34 to 1947 governs this book: the first printing carries the statement "FIRST EDITION" on the copyright page, and Knopf removed that line on later impressions, substituting "Second Printing," "Third Printing," etc. The census claim is correct: Alfred A.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Knopf's practice from 1933/34 to 1947 governs this book: the first printing carries the statement "FIRST EDITION" on the copyright page, and Knopf removed that line on later impressions, substituting "Second Printing," "Third Printing," etc. — a Knopf Serenade stated "second printing, December 1937" is recorded in the trade
- Watch the standing Knopf trap: a copyright page reading "First and second printings before publication" denotes a second printing, not a first
- Physically: octavo, 314 pp. plus 2 unnumbered; publisher's black cloth decorated and stamped in silver, with silver lettering and Mayan-style motifs on the spine; a red topstain is reported
- The book was designed by W. A. Dwiggins, who also supplied the title-page vignette and the dust jacket — an unusual excursion for him into wrapper design (Smiley & Bell 41); the text was composed in Linotype Bodoni and the book printed and bound by the Plimpton Press, Norwood, Massachusetts
- The jacket exists in several colour variants (a red-dominant version and a purple-and-red version among them) with no priority established between them; a first-edition jacket is a priced jacket, with the price present at the front flap, and unclipped examples show notably vibrant colour
- Cited as Ahearn APG 004a
- Publisher imprint reads Alfred A. Knopf

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | James M. Cain |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
| Year | 1937 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Knopf's practice from 1933/34 to 1947 governs this book: the first printing carries the statement "FIRST EDITION" on the copyright page… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Knopf's practice from 1933/34 to 1947 governs this book: the first printing carries the statement "FIRST EDITION" on the copyright page, and Knopf removed that line on later impressions, substituting "Second Printing," "Third Printing," etc. — a Knopf Serenade stated "second printing, December 1937" is recorded in the trade. Watch the standing Knopf trap: a copyright page reading "First and second printings before publication" denotes a second printing, not a first. Physically: octavo, 314 pp. plus 2 unnumbered; publisher's black cloth decorated and stamped in silver, with silver lettering and Mayan-style motifs on the spine; a red topstain is reported. The book was designed by W. A. Dwiggins, who also supplied the title-page vignette and the dust jacket — an unusual excursion for him into wrapper design (Smiley & Bell 41); the text was composed in Linotype Bodoni and the book printed and bound by the Plimpton Press, Norwood, Massachusetts. The jacket exists in several colour variants (a red-dominant version and a purple-and-red version among them) with no priority established between them; a first-edition jacket is a priced jacket, with the price present at the front flap, and unclipped examples show notably vibrant colour. Cited as Ahearn APG 004a.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim is correct: Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1937 is the true first of Cain's second novel, and it completes the core Cain Knopf run. The first English edition is Jonathan Cape, London, 1938 — copyright page reading "First Published 1938," 286 pp., red cloth — a later, separate setting that does not compete for precedence but is collected in its own right as the first UK edition and is decidedly scarce in its dust jacket. No prior foreign-language edition exists; the book was written and first published in English.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No contemporaneous book-club issue of the Knopf 1937 first is documented in the sources consulted, so the operative checks are the "FIRST EDITION" line on the copyright page and a priced, unclipped Dwiggins jacket. Later Knopf impressions announce themselves on the copyright page by printing number and month; any copy carrying a printing statement, lacking the "FIRST EDITION" line, or bearing a reprint house's imprint on the spine or title page is a later book.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Serenade* by James M. Cain a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/serenade
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.