Is My The Enormous Radio and Other Stories a First Edition?

The points of issue

• The first printing is identified by the roman numeral "I" on the copyright page — Funk & Wagnalls' first-printing code
• This title is a documented exception to the house's own practice: Quill & Brush record that the "I" appears here WITHOUT any accompanying "First published" statement, so the bare "I" is the point, and an otherwise identical copy lacking it is a later printing
• Binding is blue-green cloth stamped in gilt on the spine, with a dark yellow top stain
• The first-issue jacket (designed by Grace James) bears on the rear panel a photograph of Cheever with cigarette and ashtray against a curtain backdrop, with "Funk & Wagnalls New York 10" across the bottom, and carries no review blurbs; price present at the front flap
• Ahearn APG 002a
• Cheever's second book; fourteen stories, all first published in The New Yorker

How Funk & Wagnalls Company, New York marked a first edition

• 1877-c.1929: first editions carry no later-printing statement; occasionally a 'Published [month, year]' line appears on the copyright page. Identify a first by the absence of any later-printing notice.
• c.1929-c.1965: first editions state 'First published [month, year]' and show a Roman numeral 'I' (or Arabic '1') on the copyright page; later printings increment the numeral (II, III, ... / 2, 3, ...). The 'First publish…

Full Funk & Wagnalls Company, New York first-edition guide →

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Confirm the first-edition statement — look for “First Edition,” “First Printing,” or the publisher’s equivalent wording.
3. Check for a number line or dated printing — the lowest number present is the printing; a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the tell.
4. Verify this is the US true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
5. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
6. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

US Funk & Wagnalls, New York, 1953 is the sole true first; the sources consulted record no contemporary UK edition, so no UK-vs-US precedence question arises. The imprint is itself the trap — Funk & Wagnalls was a reference-book house and this is an outlier in Cheever's run (Random House for The Way Some People Live, 1943; Harper for The Wapshot Chronicle, 1957), which is why the book is routinely misdescribed. First-thus trap: these stories are reprinted in The Stories of John Cheever (Knopf, 1978), a collected edition and not a first.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club tell for this title is documented in the sources consulted. Generic era tells apply — club issues lack the top stain, carry a blindstamp at the rear board, and have no price at the jacket flap — but the decisive check remains the roman numeral "I" on the copyright page.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of The Enormous Radio and Other Stories a first edition?

A first edition of The Enormous Radio and Other Stories by John Cheever (Funk & Wagnalls Company, New York) is identified by: The first printing is identified by the roman numeral "I" on the copyright page — Funk & Wagnalls' first-printing code.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A stated first edition, a number line ending in 1, or a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the key. US Funk & Wagnalls, New York, 1953 is the sole true first; the sources consulted record no contemporary UK edition, so no UK-vs-US precedence question arises.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

No book-club tell for this title is documented in the sources consulted. Generic era tells apply — club issues lack the top stain, carry a blindstamp at the rear board, and have no price at the jacket flap — but the decisive check remains the roman numeral "I" on the copyright page.

I have a first edition of The Enormous Radio and Other Stories — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.