# Is "The Blind Watchmaker" by Richard Dawkins a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins (Longman, 1986) is identified by: UK Longman Scientific & Technical (Harlow/Essex) 1986, cloth in the first-state priced dust jacket. UK Longman Scientific & Technical is the true first, 1986; the US W.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- UK Longman Scientific & Technical (Harlow/Essex) 1986, cloth in the first-state priced dust jacket
- The pictorial jacket carries cover art by the zoologist and surrealist painter Desmond Morris, painted in response to the book's title, with a black-and-white photograph of the author on the lower flap and the printed price present
- The UK issue precedes the US W. W. Norton issue of the same year
- Publisher imprint reads Longman
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Richard Dawkins |
| Publisher | Longman |
| Year | 1986 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | UK Longman Scientific & Technical (Harlow/Essex) 1986, cloth in the first-state priced dust jacket |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
UK Longman Scientific & Technical (Harlow/Essex) 1986, cloth in the first-state priced dust jacket. The pictorial jacket carries cover art by the zoologist and surrealist painter Desmond Morris, painted in response to the book's title, with a black-and-white photograph of the author on the lower flap and the printed price present. The UK issue precedes the US W. W. Norton issue of the same year.

## Is this the true first?
UK Longman Scientific & Technical is the true first, 1986; the US W. W. Norton edition followed the same year. UK precedence, identified by the Longman imprint and the Desmond Morris jacket.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The UK Longman Scientific & Technical imprint is the true first; the US Norton 1986 is a later issue of the same year and carries different jacket design.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Blind Watchmaker* by Richard Dawkins a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-blind-watchmaker
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.