# Is "The Cold War Swap" by Ross Thomas a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Cold War Swap by Ross Thomas (William Morrow, 1966) is identified by: William Morrow's practice before 1973 was to place "First Printing (Month, Year)" on the copyright page only sometimes, but to always indicate later printings. The census claim holds as to precedence: the true first is William Morrow (New York), 1966 — Ross Thomas's debut and the first appearance of McCorkle and Padillo.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- William Morrow's practice before 1973 was to place "First Printing (Month, Year)" on the copyright page only sometimes, but to always indicate later printings
- The operative point is therefore negative: a first has no later-printing statement on the copyright page, and the presence of any such line rules the copy out
- Octavo, bound in cloth-backed boards — dealers describe a blue cloth backstrip over patterned boards
- The jacket carries the line "A Novel of Espionage"; a priced jacket with the price present at the front flap is expected on an unclipped copy
- No first-state text error is documented in the sources consulted for this title, and none should be inferred
- Publisher imprint reads William Morrow
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Ross Thomas |
| Publisher | William Morrow |
| Year | 1966 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | William Morrow's practice before 1973 was to place "First Printing (Month, Year)" on the copyright page only sometimes, but to always… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
William Morrow's practice before 1973 was to place "First Printing (Month, Year)" on the copyright page only sometimes, but to always indicate later printings. The operative point is therefore negative: a first has no later-printing statement on the copyright page, and the presence of any such line rules the copy out. Octavo, bound in cloth-backed boards — dealers describe a blue cloth backstrip over patterned boards. The jacket carries the line "A Novel of Espionage"; a priced jacket with the price present at the front flap is expected on an unclipped copy. No first-state text error is documented in the sources consulted for this title, and none should be inferred.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim holds as to precedence: the true first is William Morrow (New York), 1966 — Ross Thomas's debut and the first appearance of McCorkle and Padillo. One correction to the census note: the book won the 1967 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel, not Best Novel. Title-change trap on the UK side: the British first is Hodder & Stoughton (London), 1967, published under the different title Spy in the Vodka — collectors seeking the UK first must look for that title, not The Cold War Swap. Hodder reverted to the original title for its 1968 paperback, so any UK copy reading The Cold War Swap postdates the UK hardback first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
American book-club copies circulate. Tells: a blind stamp impressed on the rear board (Book-of-the-Month Club used a dot, circle, or square, sometimes coloured), no price at the jacket flap on an unclipped jacket, lighter bulk, and cheaper board stock. If the flap corner is clipped, the rear-board blind stamp is the decider — an unpriced jacket alone cannot establish a trade first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Cold War Swap* by Ross Thomas a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-cold-war-swap
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.