# Is "The House at Otowi Bridge" by Peggy Pond Church a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The House at Otowi Bridge by Peggy Pond Church (UNM Press, 1959) is identified by: The true first edition of The House at Otowi Bridge by Peggy Pond Church is the 1959 University of New Mexico Press hardcover (Albuquerque), carrying the full subtitle The Story of Edith Warner and Los Alamos and illustrated with twenty pen-and-ink drawings by Connie Fox Boyd. The 1959 UNM Press hardcover is the true first; the 1960 UNM Press printing is a second printing of the same setting, and the long-running Zia Books paperback (ISBN 0-8263-0281-5) is a later reissue.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The true first edition of The House at Otowi Bridge by Peggy Pond Church is the 1959 University of New Mexico Press hardcover (Albuquerque), carrying the full subtitle The Story of Edith Warner and Los Alamos and illustrated with twenty pen-and-ink drawings by Connie Fox Boyd
- The first printing bears the 1959 date on the title page and verso; a second printing dated 1960 followed, and dealers not infrequently catalogue that 1960 second printing as a first edition, so the collector should confirm the 1959 date rather than rely on a 'first edition' notation alone
- Issued in cloth boards in a pictorial dust jacket; the jacket should retain its printed price and be present, since the text block alone is common
- The book recounts Edith Warner's tea house near the Otowi crossing of the Rio Grande during the Los Alamos years
- Publisher imprint reads UNM Press
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Peggy Pond Church |
| Publisher | UNM Press |
| Year | 1959 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The true first edition of The House at Otowi Bridge by Peggy Pond Church is the 1959 University of New Mexico Press hardcover… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
The true first edition of The House at Otowi Bridge by Peggy Pond Church is the 1959 University of New Mexico Press hardcover (Albuquerque), carrying the full subtitle The Story of Edith Warner and Los Alamos and illustrated with twenty pen-and-ink drawings by Connie Fox Boyd. The first printing bears the 1959 date on the title page and verso; a second printing dated 1960 followed, and dealers not infrequently catalogue that 1960 second printing as a first edition, so the collector should confirm the 1959 date rather than rely on a 'first edition' notation alone. Issued in cloth boards in a pictorial dust jacket; the jacket should retain its printed price and be present, since the text block alone is common. The book recounts Edith Warner's tea house near the Otowi crossing of the Rio Grande during the Los Alamos years.

## Is this the true first?
The 1959 UNM Press hardcover is the true first; the 1960 UNM Press printing is a second printing of the same setting, and the long-running Zia Books paperback (ISBN 0-8263-0281-5) is a later reissue. Confirm the 1959 title-page date to distinguish the first printing from the 1960 second printing.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Book-club editions and later printings reprint the text but are not the first edition and are far less collectible. When a hardcover and a simultaneous paperback exist (standard from the mid-1970s), the hardcover in dust jacket is the collector's first. Use the points above to be certain — see book-club edition vs. first edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The House at Otowi Bridge* by Peggy Pond Church a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-house-at-otowi-bridge
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.