# Is "The House Next Door" by Anne Rivers Siddons a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1978) is identified by: The first printing carries a number line on the copyright page beginning with "1" and running to "10"; the presence of the "1" is the operative test, and later printings strip the low digits. The true first is the US edition: Simon and Schuster, New York, 1978 — the census claim is confirmed, as is its canonisation by Stephen King in Danse Macabre as a modern haunted-house landmark.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The first printing carries a number line on the copyright page beginning with "1" and running to "10"; the presence of the "1" is the operative test, and later printings strip the low digits
- This is consistent with Simon & Schuster house practice, which adopted a number row in the early 1970s (occasionally alongside a first-edition statement) after using an explicit first-edition statement from 1952
- Collation: 346 pages, octavo
- Binding: brown cloth
- Jacket: pictorial, and it should be a priced jacket with the price present at the front flap; a remainder mark disqualifies a copy from first-printing condition though it does not change the printing
- No first-state textual error is documented for this title in the sources consulted — do not assert one
- Publisher imprint reads Simon and Schuster, New York

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Anne Rivers Siddons |
| Publisher | Simon and Schuster, New York |
| Year | 1978 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The first printing carries a number line on the copyright page beginning with "1" and running to "10"; the presence of the "1" is the… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
The first printing carries a number line on the copyright page beginning with "1" and running to "10"; the presence of the "1" is the operative test, and later printings strip the low digits. This is consistent with Simon & Schuster house practice, which adopted a number row in the early 1970s (occasionally alongside a first-edition statement) after using an explicit first-edition statement from 1952. Collation: 346 pages, octavo. Binding: brown cloth. Jacket: pictorial, and it should be a priced jacket with the price present at the front flap; a remainder mark disqualifies a copy from first-printing condition though it does not change the printing. No first-state textual error is documented for this title in the sources consulted — do not assert one.

## Is this the true first?
The true first is the US edition: Simon and Schuster, New York, 1978 — the census claim is confirmed, as is its canonisation by Stephen King in Danse Macabre as a modern haunted-house landmark. No UK or original-language edition holds precedence; the book was written in English and first issued in the United States, becoming a New York Times bestseller. Later Ballantine and HarperCollins mass-market printings and the 2007 Simon & Schuster reissue (ISBN 9781416553441) are "first thus" traps, not firsts — only the 1978 S&S hardcover with the number line beginning at 1 is the first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
A Book Club Edition was issued and is offered on the market, carrying the same Simon and Schuster 1978 imprint, which is the trap. BCE tells: an unpriced jacket (printed without a price rather than clipped), a blind stamp / embossed device on the rear board, lighter boards and stock, and a smaller trim than the trade first. The BCE lacks the trade first's number line beginning with "1."

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The House Next Door* by Anne Rivers Siddons a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-house-next-door
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.