# Is "The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby" by Tom Wolfe a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby by Tom Wolfe (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1965) is identified by: First printing states "First Printing, 1965" explicitly on the copyright page — FSG's own statement, and the whole test. Census claim confirmed: FSG, New York, 1965 is the true first, and this is Wolfe's first book.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First printing states "First Printing, 1965" explicitly on the copyright page — FSG's own statement, and the whole test
- Its absence, or any later printing statement, rules out a first
- Octavo, xvii, [1], 339, [1] pp
- Publisher's white cloth, the spine lettered in gilt with decoration and titling to the upper board; line drawings throughout by Wolfe
- Priced jacket with the price present at the front flap; price-clipping removes that point
- One caution: dealer descriptions of the endpapers conflict (red versus orange) and the topstain is described inconsistently, so neither should be used as an identification point
- Publisher imprint reads Farrar, Straus and Giroux

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Tom Wolfe |
| Publisher | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
| Year | 1965 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First printing states "First Printing, 1965" explicitly on the copyright page — FSG's own statement, and the whole test |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First printing states "First Printing, 1965" explicitly on the copyright page — FSG's own statement, and the whole test. Its absence, or any later printing statement, rules out a first. Octavo, xvii, [1], 339, [1] pp. Publisher's white cloth, the spine lettered in gilt with decoration and titling to the upper board; line drawings throughout by Wolfe. Priced jacket with the price present at the front flap; price-clipping removes that point. One caution: dealer descriptions of the endpapers conflict (red versus orange) and the topstain is described inconsistently, so neither should be used as an identification point. No first-state text errors are documented in the sources consulted.

## Is this the true first?
Census claim confirmed: FSG, New York, 1965 is the true first, and this is Wolfe's first book. The first English edition is Jonathan Cape, London, 1966 (xvii + 339 pp, jacket designed by Jonathan Miller), separately collected but subsequent to the US. Note the date trap this creates: a copy dated 1966 is either the Cape UK edition or a US reprint, never the FSG first. A printed publisher's note apologising to the artist Bridget Riley over the Cape jacket design is reported by a UK dealer but rests on a single source and is not confirmed here.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented for this title in the sources consulted. Later FSG printings are identified by the printing statement on the copyright page.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby* by Tom Wolfe a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-kandy-kolored-tangerine-flake-streamline-baby
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.