# Is "Sons" by Pearl S. Buck a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Sons by Pearl S. Buck (The John Day Company, 1932) is identified by: New York: The John Day Company, 1932. US John Day (New York) 1932 is the true first — the second volume of the House of Earth trilogy, following The Good Earth (John Day, 1931).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- New York: The John Day Company, 1932
- The trade first printing is stated, and the wording is unusual and specific: the copyright page reads "First Trade Edition, September, 1932." It says "trade" because a signed limited issue was also published in 1932 (dealer-recorded copies are numbered on a limitation page out of 371 and signed by Buck), so the trade sheets are designated first trade edition rather than first edition
- A second printing followed in the same month, September 1932, and is noted on the copyright page — John Day's practice in the 1930s was to leave firsts unmarked or to state "First Published (month, year)" and to note all subsequent printings, so any printing notation other than the first-trade-edition line rules a copy out
- Octavo (21 cm), 467 pp
- Light-brown/tan cloth with gilt and blind stamping to the front board and spine, red topstain, deckled fore-edge, red pictorial endpapers
- Pictorial jacket with the price present at the flap
- Publisher imprint reads The John Day Company

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Pearl S. Buck |
| Publisher | The John Day Company |
| Year | 1932 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | New York: The John Day Company, 1932 |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
New York: The John Day Company, 1932. The trade first printing is stated, and the wording is unusual and specific: the copyright page reads "First Trade Edition, September, 1932." It says "trade" because a signed limited issue was also published in 1932 (dealer-recorded copies are numbered on a limitation page out of 371 and signed by Buck), so the trade sheets are designated first trade edition rather than first edition. A second printing followed in the same month, September 1932, and is noted on the copyright page — John Day's practice in the 1930s was to leave firsts unmarked or to state "First Published (month, year)" and to note all subsequent printings, so any printing notation other than the first-trade-edition line rules a copy out. Octavo (21 cm), 467 pp. Light-brown/tan cloth with gilt and blind stamping to the front board and spine, red topstain, deckled fore-edge, red pictorial endpapers. Pictorial jacket with the price present at the flap. Advance copies exist in pictorial yellow and red printed wrappers.

## Is this the true first?
US John Day (New York) 1932 is the true first — the second volume of the House of Earth trilogy, following The Good Earth (John Day, 1931). The census claim is confirmed. The first UK edition is Methuen & Co. Ltd, London, 1932, stating "First published in Great Britain 1932" on the copyright page, in brown boards with an embossed front cover and black lettering and design on the spine. Both are collected and both are dated 1932, but the Methuen is the British-territory issue of an American book from Buck's home publisher and follows John Day; describe them as "first US" and "first UK" rather than treating the same year as a tie. Within the American issue, the signed limited precedes the trade issue in the collecting hierarchy — the trade copy is the first trade edition, not the first edition outright.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue of the 1932 John Day printing is documented in the sources consulted. The operative tell is the printing statement: because a second printing appeared in September 1932 as well, a copy lacking the "First Trade Edition, September, 1932" line is not the first trade issue regardless of the 1932 date on the title page. A separate signed-copy trap: the John Day "Selected Works" set (eleven volumes, limited to 1,000, each signed on a limitation page, issued for Buck's eightieth birthday in 1972) is a late signed reprint and is sometimes mistaken for an early signed first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Sons* by Pearl S. Buck a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/sons
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.