# Is "The Female Man" by Joanna Russ a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Female Man by Joanna Russ (Bantam, 1975) is identified by: Bantam Books, New York — a mass-market paperback original, February 1975, Bantam catalogue number Q8765, ISBN 0-553-08765-7, cover art by Morgan Kane. The paperback original is the true first, as the census states — written in 1970, published by Bantam in February 1975.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Bantam Books, New York — a mass-market paperback original, February 1975, Bantam catalogue number Q8765, ISBN 0-553-08765-7, cover art by Morgan Kane
- The first printing is identified by the Q8765 designation on the cover and spine and by the copyright-page printing history showing the Bantam edition published February 1975 with no later printing line beneath it
- Bantam states subsequent printings there, so the absence of any later printing statement is the point
- The number and ISBN corroborate each other — from 1969 Bantam tied the book number to the middle block of the ISBN, so Q8765 and the 08765 element of the ISBN agree, and the Q prefix is the correct 1975 series prefix for this title
- Original cover price present and unclipped
- Note that the ISBN 0-553-11175-2 which circulates in reference listings for this title does not correspond to the February 1975 first printing
- Publisher imprint reads Bantam

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Joanna Russ |
| Publisher | Bantam |
| Year | 1975 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Bantam Books, New York — a mass-market paperback original, February 1975, Bantam catalogue number Q8765, ISBN 0-553-08765-7, cover art by… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
Bantam Books, New York — a mass-market paperback original, February 1975, Bantam catalogue number Q8765, ISBN 0-553-08765-7, cover art by Morgan Kane. The first printing is identified by the Q8765 designation on the cover and spine and by the copyright-page printing history showing the Bantam edition published February 1975 with no later printing line beneath it; Bantam states subsequent printings there, so the absence of any later printing statement is the point. The number and ISBN corroborate each other — from 1969 Bantam tied the book number to the middle block of the ISBN, so Q8765 and the 08765 element of the ISBN agree, and the Q prefix is the correct 1975 series prefix for this title. Original cover price present and unclipped. Note that the ISBN 0-553-11175-2 which circulates in reference listings for this title does not correspond to the February 1975 first printing.

## Is this the true first?
The paperback original is the true first, as the census states — written in 1970, published by Bantam in February 1975. The first hardcover is Gregg Press, Boston, in The Gregg Press Science Fiction Series (ISBN 0-8398-2351-7), with a new introduction; WorldCat and dealer records date it 1977, while one reference wiki gives June 1975 — the conflict is immaterial to precedence, since the Bantam of February 1975 leads on either dating, but the Gregg year should be given as 1977 with that caveat rather than asserted flatly. No UK edition preceded: the earliest UK issue documented in the sources consulted is The Women's Press, London, April 1985. Nebula nominee for 1975; one of three Retrospective Tiptree Award winners in 1996.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Gregg Press (1977) is a hardcover reprint of the Bantam text and is the standard trap for this title, since collectors assume a hardcover must lead — it does not, and it should never be catalogued as the first edition. Later Bantam printings are stated as such in the copyright-page printing history and carry different numbers and ISBNs from Q8765 / 0-553-08765-7. Bantam's numbering is a complicating factor for this exact year: the firm exhausted its available numbers in early 1975 and began reusing numbers from the 2000s range, moved to a five-digit system in 1976, and redesignated overlap-period books with a preceding zero — so verify against Q8765 and the February 1975 statement together rather than against the number alone.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Female Man* by Joanna Russ a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-female-man
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.