# Is "The Case of the Buried Clock" by Erle Stanley Gardner a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Case of the Buried Clock by Erle Stanley Gardner (William Morrow, 1943) is identified by: William Morrow, New York, 1943. The US William Morrow edition is the true first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- William Morrow, New York, 1943
- A Perry Mason novel
- On the true first printing Morrow prints the same year
- on both the title page and the copyright page, with no statement of a later printing on the copyright page; that absence of any additional printing line is how Morrow indicated a first at this date
- Issued in orange cloth with black lettering
- A wartime production printed under War Production Board paper-conservation rules
- Publisher imprint reads William Morrow

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Erle Stanley Gardner |
| Publisher | William Morrow |
| Year | 1943 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | William Morrow, New York, 1943 |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
William Morrow, New York, 1943. A Perry Mason novel. On the true first printing Morrow prints the same year (1943) on both the title page and the copyright page, with no statement of a later printing on the copyright page; that absence of any additional printing line is how Morrow indicated a first at this date. Issued in orange cloth with black lettering. A wartime production printed under War Production Board paper-conservation rules.

## Is this the true first?
The US William Morrow edition is the true first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Later Grosset & Dunlap and other reprints follow and are not firsts.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Case of the Buried Clock* by Erle Stanley Gardner a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-case-of-the-buried-clock
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-03.