# Is "The Heat of the Day" by Elizabeth Bowen a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen (Jonathan Cape, 1949) is identified by: British first: London, Jonathan Cape, 1949; original beige/cream cloth, spine (and front board) lettered in red; collation (4)+319 pp. Cape (London) and Knopf (New York) both appeared in 1949 and are conventionally treated as essentially simultaneous; for this Anglo-Irish author collectors conventionally prefer the London Cape issue as the true first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- British first: London, Jonathan Cape, 1949; original beige/cream cloth, spine (and front board) lettered in red; collation
- The American first (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1949) is a physically distinct book — green cloth, gilt spine, 372 pp
- Knopf additionally issued a signed limited edition of 500 copies (signed by Bowen on the limitation leaf)
- A first-issue jacket is a priced jacket with the price present at the flap
- Cloth colours, collations, the Book Society club issue and the Knopf 500-copy signed limitation are each corroborated by two or more independent dealer descriptions
- Publisher imprint reads Jonathan Cape
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Elizabeth Bowen |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape |
| Year | 1949 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | British first: London, Jonathan Cape, 1949; original beige/cream cloth, spine (and front board) lettered in red; collation |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
British first: London, Jonathan Cape, 1949; original beige/cream cloth, spine (and front board) lettered in red; collation (4)+319 pp. The American first (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1949) is a physically distinct book — green cloth, gilt spine, 372 pp. Knopf additionally issued a signed limited edition of 500 copies (signed by Bowen on the limitation leaf). A first-issue jacket is a priced jacket with the price present at the flap. Cloth colours, collations, the Book Society club issue and the Knopf 500-copy signed limitation are each corroborated by two or more independent dealer descriptions.

## Is this the true first?
Cape (London) and Knopf (New York) both appeared in 1949 and are conventionally treated as essentially simultaneous; for this Anglo-Irish author collectors conventionally prefer the London Cape issue as the true first. Exact month-level precedence between the two 1949 editions is NOT firmly documented in the sources consulted, so precedence is given as collecting convention rather than established fact. The Knopf 500-copy signed limited is a separate first-American collectible.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Avoid the Book Society issue: the Cape edition was also supplied to The Book Society (a book club), and dealers specifically distinguish the true Cape first impression from the Book Society version. Later Cape / Knopf reprints and modern reissues (Penguin, Vintage, Anchor) are later 'first thus.'

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Heat of the Day* by Elizabeth Bowen a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-heat-of-the-day
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.