# Is "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier (Pantheon Books, 1974) is identified by: Census claim confirmed: Pantheon Books, New York, 1974 is the true first. US: Pantheon Books, New York, 1974 — the true first, published after rejection by several houses.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Census claim confirmed: Pantheon Books, New York, 1974 is the true first
- Library of Congress (LCCN 73-15109) records Pantheon Books, [New York], [1974], 253 pages, 22 cm, ISBN 0-394-82805-4 — the pagination and ISBN are the baseline check, and dealer listings consistently show 253 pages
- Pantheon has stated "First Edition" on the copyright page since 1964 (Quill & Brush) — one guide narrows this to "First Edition" from 1971 on, with "First Printing" or "First American Edition" used 1965–1971 — so a first printing carries the "First Edition" statement with no later-printing notice; by 1974 Pantheon was a Random House imprint following the same house practice as Random House and Knopf
- Binding is publisher's cloth-backed boards (quarter cloth over paper-covered boards) with stamped spine lettering, in a pictorial dust jacket; the jacket should be priced at the front flap
- Do not rely on binding colour as a point: ABAA and trade dealer descriptions conflict, variously reporting brown cloth with gilt spine lettering and quarter brown cloth over light blue blind-stamped boards with silver spine lettering
- Publisher imprint reads Pantheon Books
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Robert Cormier |
| Publisher | Pantheon Books |
| Year | 1974 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | Census claim confirmed: Pantheon Books, New York, 1974 is the true first |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Census claim confirmed: Pantheon Books, New York, 1974 is the true first. Library of Congress (LCCN 73-15109) records Pantheon Books, [New York], [1974], 253 pages, 22 cm, ISBN 0-394-82805-4 — the pagination and ISBN are the baseline check, and dealer listings consistently show 253 pages. Pantheon has stated "First Edition" on the copyright page since 1964 (Quill & Brush) — one guide narrows this to "First Edition" from 1971 on, with "First Printing" or "First American Edition" used 1965–1971 — so a first printing carries the "First Edition" statement with no later-printing notice; by 1974 Pantheon was a Random House imprint following the same house practice as Random House and Knopf. Binding is publisher's cloth-backed boards (quarter cloth over paper-covered boards) with stamped spine lettering, in a pictorial dust jacket; the jacket should be priced at the front flap. Do not rely on binding colour as a point: ABAA and trade dealer descriptions conflict, variously reporting brown cloth with gilt spine lettering and quarter brown cloth over light blue blind-stamped boards with silver spine lettering.

## Is this the true first?
US: Pantheon Books, New York, 1974 — the true first, published after rejection by several houses. UK: Victor Gollancz, London, 1975 — the first British edition, a year later; dealers describe it as octavo, original brown boards gilt, 254 pages, in a beige pictorial dustwrapper priced at the flap. Both are collected, but precedence is unambiguously American; the Gollancz is a first British edition, not a first edition.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue of the Pantheon hardcover was documented in the sources consulted. The recurring traps are format traps rather than club traps: the publisher's library binding (Random House used a 0-394-9xxxxx ISBN for library issues against the 0-394-82805-4 trade ISBN), the 1986 Laurel-Leaf and 2004 Ember paperbacks, and later Knopf/Random House hardcover reissues that retain the 1974 copyright and are routinely mis-listed by dealers as first editions. A jacket without a price at the flap is normally a clipped trade jacket here, not a club tell.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Chocolate War* by Robert Cormier a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-chocolate-war
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.