# Is "The City of Trembling Leaves" by Walter Van Tilburg Clark a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The City of Trembling Leaves by Walter Van Tilburg Clark (Random House, 1945) is identified by: First printings state "First Printing" on the copyright page; Random House used a stated first-printing line and simply removed it for later printings, so an unstated 1945 Random House copy is a subsequent printing — dealers catalog exactly such copies as second printings. US-only first: Random House, New York, 1945 — the census claim is correct, and no UK edition precedes it in the records consulted.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First printings state "First Printing" on the copyright page
- Random House used a stated first-printing line and simply removed it for later printings, so an unstated 1945 Random House copy is a subsequent printing — dealers catalog exactly such copies as second printings
- Collation is octavo, [xii] plus 690 pages
- The binding is light green to light olive cloth with the spine stamped in gilt and teal, and a green-tinted top stain that commonly fades (one outlying description calls the cloth tan with a blue top edge, so compare against the corroborated light green/olive before rejecting a copy)
- The pictorial publisher's jacket carries an author biography on the rear panel and the price at the flap; unclipped copies retain the flap price
- Publisher imprint reads Random House
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Walter Van Tilburg Clark |
| Publisher | Random House |
| Year | 1945 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First printings state "First Printing" on the copyright page |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First printings state "First Printing" on the copyright page; Random House used a stated first-printing line and simply removed it for later printings, so an unstated 1945 Random House copy is a subsequent printing — dealers catalog exactly such copies as second printings. Collation is octavo, [xii] plus 690 pages. The binding is light green to light olive cloth with the spine stamped in gilt and teal, and a green-tinted top stain that commonly fades (one outlying description calls the cloth tan with a blue top edge, so compare against the corroborated light green/olive before rejecting a copy). The pictorial publisher's jacket carries an author biography on the rear panel and the price at the flap; unclipped copies retain the flap price.

## Is this the true first?
US-only first: Random House, New York, 1945 — the census claim is correct, and no UK edition precedes it in the records consulted. Written in English, so no original-language precedence question arises. The University of Nevada Press reissue in its Western Literature series is a modern reprint, not a competing first, and does not affect precedence.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The critical trap is the Sun Dial Press reprint of 1946. Sun Dial was a reprint house that worked from the original publisher's plates, so its reprints can reproduce the original copyright page verbatim — "First Printing" statement and all — which means the copyright page alone will not settle the question on this title. Confirm the Random House imprint on the title page and at the foot of the spine; a Sun Dial Press imprint in either place means a reprint, not a first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The City of Trembling Leaves* by Walter Van Tilburg Clark a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-city-of-trembling-leaves
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.