# Is "The Hour of the Oxrun Dead" by Charles L. Grant a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Hour of the Oxrun Dead by Charles L. Grant (Doubleday & Company, Garden City, 1977) is identified by: Doubleday's practice for this period is well documented and consistent across the ILAB and Quill & Brush publisher guides: the first printing states "First Edition" on the copyright page, and that statement is removed on later printings — so its absence on a trade copy indicates a reprint. The census claim stands: Doubleday, Garden City, 1977 (October) is the true first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Doubleday's practice for this period is well documented and consistent across the ILAB and Quill & Brush publisher guides: the first printing states "First Edition" on the copyright page, and that statement is removed on later printings — so its absence on a trade copy indicates a reprint
- The first edition is the Doubleday hardcover, Garden City, October 1977, 182 pages, ISBN 0-385-13173-9, in a priced jacket (price present at the front flap, unclipped)
- No first-state text error, cancel leaf, or binding variant is recorded for this title in any source consulted; identification rests on the copyright-page statement together with the trade-issue physical characteristics listed under the book-club note
- This is the first of the Oxrun Station "quiet horror" cycle, the first three volumes of which Doubleday issued in hardcover
- Publisher imprint reads Doubleday & Company, Garden City
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Charles L. Grant |
| Publisher | Doubleday & Company, Garden City |
| Year | 1977 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Doubleday's practice for this period is well documented and consistent across the ILAB and Quill & Brush publisher guides: the first… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
Doubleday's practice for this period is well documented and consistent across the ILAB and Quill & Brush publisher guides: the first printing states "First Edition" on the copyright page, and that statement is removed on later printings — so its absence on a trade copy indicates a reprint. The first edition is the Doubleday hardcover, Garden City, October 1977, 182 pages, ISBN 0-385-13173-9, in a priced jacket (price present at the front flap, unclipped). No first-state text error, cancel leaf, or binding variant is recorded for this title in any source consulted; identification rests on the copyright-page statement together with the trade-issue physical characteristics listed under the book-club note. This is the first of the Oxrun Station "quiet horror" cycle, the first three volumes of which Doubleday issued in hardcover.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim stands: Doubleday, Garden City, 1977 (October) is the true first. No UK or original-language edition precedes it. The important precedence trap is format, not country — Popular Library issued a mass-market paperback that is dated 1979 in the bibliographic record consulted (some marketplace listings misdate it to 1977, but no source places it ahead of the Doubleday hardcover), and Tor reprinted it in paperback in 1987. Both are reprints, not the first. A modern reissue also exists under ISBN 978-1-63789-003-5 and is "first thus" only.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Doubleday's own book clubs (Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club, Mystery Guild, Science Fiction Book Club) make this a high-risk title. The documented tells: no price on the jacket flap; a five-digit code, usually black numerals in a white block, on the jacket; smaller trim, thinner paper, cheaper binding, and a smaller typeface than the trade issue; and a small blind stamp — an impressed square, circle, or dot — on the lower rear board. Critically, a Doubleday club copy can still carry a "First Edition" statement on the copyright page: the statement alone does not clear a copy, and a club copy remains a club copy regardless of what the copyright page says. Club jackets are also sometimes married onto trade copies to replace lost jackets, so check book and jacket independently.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Hour of the Oxrun Dead* by Charles L. Grant a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-hour-of-the-oxrun-dead
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.