# Is "She's Come Undone" by Wally Lamb a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb (Pocket Books, 1992) is identified by: The first printing is identified by the statement "First Pocket Books hardcover printing August 1992" on the copyright page together with a complete number line reading 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1; the 1 must be present. The Pocket Books (New York) hardcover of August 1992 is the true first, and the census attribution is correct; Pocket Books is a Simon & Schuster imprint, which is why some records credit Simon & Schuster as publisher for the same book.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The first printing is identified by the statement "First Pocket Books hardcover printing August 1992" on the copyright page together with a complete number line reading 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1; the 1 must be present
- Bound in mauve paper-covered boards with an off-white cloth spine
- Issued in a priced jacket — the price should be present and unclipped at the front flap
- The hardcover first printing was small: this was an unheralded debut published more than four years before the book-club selection that made it a bestseller, so genuine first printings are markedly scarcer than the later printings and paperbacks that dominate the market
- Sources disagree on the page count (references consulted give both 405 and 368 pp.), so page count is not a usable point here
- Publisher imprint reads Pocket Books
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Wally Lamb |
| Publisher | Pocket Books |
| Year | 1992 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The first printing is identified by the statement "First Pocket Books hardcover printing August 1992" on the copyright page together with a… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
The first printing is identified by the statement "First Pocket Books hardcover printing August 1992" on the copyright page together with a complete number line reading 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1; the 1 must be present. Bound in mauve paper-covered boards with an off-white cloth spine. Issued in a priced jacket — the price should be present and unclipped at the front flap. The hardcover first printing was small: this was an unheralded debut published more than four years before the book-club selection that made it a bestseller, so genuine first printings are markedly scarcer than the later printings and paperbacks that dominate the market. Sources disagree on the page count (references consulted give both 405 and 368 pp.), so page count is not a usable point here.

## Is this the true first?
The Pocket Books (New York) hardcover of August 1992 is the true first, and the census attribution is correct; Pocket Books is a Simon & Schuster imprint, which is why some records credit Simon & Schuster as publisher for the same book. No UK or foreign edition precedes it — Lamb is American and this was a US debut. The trap here is format rather than country: the title is overwhelmingly encountered as a trade paperback, and only the 1992 Pocket hardcover is the first edition. One general-reference summary describes the novel as appearing in hardcover and paperback, but the points references consulted treat the August 1992 hardcover as the first, and no evidence of a simultaneous or preceding paperback issue was found. Any paperback, including the earliest Pocket trade paperback, is a later issue.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The decisive later-issue tell is Oprah's Book Club branding. The novel was chosen as the club's fourth selection in December 1996 — over four years after publication — so any copy carrying the Oprah's Book Club seal or logo on the jacket, board, or cover, including the widely circulated Pocket paperback (ISBN 9780671021009), is by definition a post-1996 reprint and cannot be a 1992 first printing. This single tell disposes of most copies offered as firsts. Standard club tells otherwise apply: a blind stamp or dot impressed into the rear board near the spine, absence of a flap price, and lighter bulk than the trade issue override any printing statement or number line reproduced on the copyright page.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *She's Come Undone* by Wally Lamb a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/shes-come-undone
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.