# Is "The Benefactor" by Susan Sontag a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Benefactor by Susan Sontag (Farrar, Straus and Company, 1963) is identified by: New York: Farrar, Straus and Company, 1963. US Farrar, Straus and Company (New York) 1963 is the true first and is Sontag's first book — the census claim is confirmed.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- New York: Farrar, Straus and Company, 1963
- The first printing is stated — the copyright page reads "First Printing, 1963." Note the imprint carefully: the firm was Farrar, Straus and Company at this date and did not become Farrar, Straus & Giroux until 1964, so catalogue records and even reference sites that print "Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1963" are normalizing to the later name; the title page is the authority
- Binding: black cloth spine lettered in white and light green/turquoise over black paper-covered boards, gray-green endpapers, top edge stained black; ix, 273 pp (some records collate it at 274)
- Jacket designed by Janet Halverson, with a Beardsley-like peacock-fan design on the front panel and a Harry Hess photograph of the young Sontag in a leather coat on the back panel; the first-issue jacket carries that author photograph with no review blurbs, and the price is present at the front flap
- Publisher imprint reads Farrar, Straus and Company
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Susan Sontag |
| Publisher | Farrar, Straus and Company |
| Year | 1963 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | New York: Farrar, Straus and Company, 1963 |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
New York: Farrar, Straus and Company, 1963. The first printing is stated — the copyright page reads "First Printing, 1963." Note the imprint carefully: the firm was Farrar, Straus and Company at this date and did not become Farrar, Straus & Giroux until 1964, so catalogue records and even reference sites that print "Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1963" are normalizing to the later name; the title page is the authority. Binding: black cloth spine lettered in white and light green/turquoise over black paper-covered boards, gray-green endpapers, top edge stained black; ix, 273 pp (some records collate it at 274). Jacket designed by Janet Halverson, with a Beardsley-like peacock-fan design on the front panel and a Harry Hess photograph of the young Sontag in a leather coat on the back panel; the first-issue jacket carries that author photograph with no review blurbs, and the price is present at the front flap.

## Is this the true first?
US Farrar, Straus and Company (New York) 1963 is the true first and is Sontag's first book — the census claim is confirmed. The first UK edition is Eyre & Spottiswoode, London, 1964 (273 pp, dark brown boards lettered in gilt); it is collected in its own right as the first English edition of the author's first book, but it is a year later and second in precedence.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue of the 1963 Farrar, Straus printing is documented in the sources consulted. The trap on this title is "first thus" reprints rather than club copies: the later Picador/FSG paperback reissue (ISBN 9780312420123) is frequently offered under the original 1963 copyright and is a reprint, not a first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Benefactor* by Susan Sontag a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-benefactor
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.