# Is "The Carpentered Hen and Other Tame Creatures" by John Updike a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Carpentered Hen and Other Tame Creatures by John Updike (Harper & Brothers, New York, 1958) is identified by: The first printing states "First Edition" on the copyright page AND carries the Harper letter code "B-H" — B = February, H = 1958 in Harper's month/year code table — so both the statement and the code must be present. US Harper & Brothers, New York, 1958 is the true first and Updike's first book — his only trade book not published by Knopf.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The first printing states "First Edition" on the copyright page AND carries the Harper letter code "B-H" — B = February, H = 1958 in Harper's month/year code table — so both the statement and the code must be present
- Binding is quarter black cloth with the spine lettered in gilt over off-white paper-covered boards stamped in gold
- The first-issue jacket is the sharper point: the rear-flap biography states the author has "two small children", corrected to "four" in the second-issue jacket (Roberts A1a); price present at the front flap
- Structural note for grading, not identification: this slim verse volume has a notoriously weak binding and the text block frequently leans or cocks forward
- Publisher imprint reads Harper & Brothers, New York
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | John Updike |
| Publisher | Harper & Brothers, New York |
| Year | 1958 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The first printing states "First Edition" on the copyright page AND carries the Harper letter code "B-H" — B = February, H = 1958 in… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The first printing states "First Edition" on the copyright page AND carries the Harper letter code "B-H" — B = February, H = 1958 in Harper's month/year code table — so both the statement and the code must be present. Binding is quarter black cloth with the spine lettered in gilt over off-white paper-covered boards stamped in gold. The first-issue jacket is the sharper point: the rear-flap biography states the author has "two small children", corrected to "four" in the second-issue jacket (Roberts A1a); price present at the front flap. Structural note for grading, not identification: this slim verse volume has a notoriously weak binding and the text block frequently leans or cocks forward.

## Is this the true first?
US Harper & Brothers, New York, 1958 is the true first and Updike's first book — his only trade book not published by Knopf. The UK edition is a title-change trap: it appeared as "Hoping for a Hoopoe" (Victor Gollancz, London, 1959) and adds an Author's Note not present in the US edition. The Gollancz book is separately collected as the first English edition but does not precede the Harper issue; a copy catalogued under either title is describing the same work.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented for this title in the sources consulted — an unlikely candidate, being a slim collection of light verse. The live traps are the 1959 Gollancz retitling and later Harper printings, which drop the "First Edition" statement and the B-H code.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Carpentered Hen and Other Tame Creatures* by John Updike a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-carpentered-hen-and-other-tame-creatures
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.