# Is "The Knightly Quest: A Novella and Four Short Stories" by Tennessee Williams a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Knightly Quest: A Novella and Four Short Stories by Tennessee Williams (New Directions, 1966) is identified by: First edition, New Directions, New York, 1966. US New Directions 1966 is the true first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, New Directions, New York, 1966
- Clothbound in dust jacket reproducing a Salvador Dali drawing (Cavalier of Death) on the front panel
- Novella plus four short stories, 183 pages
- A simultaneous New Directions paperbook was also issued
- Publisher imprint reads New Directions
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Tennessee Williams |
| Publisher | New Directions |
| Year | 1966 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, New Directions, New York, 1966 |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
First edition, New Directions, New York, 1966. Clothbound in dust jacket reproducing a Salvador Dali drawing (Cavalier of Death) on the front panel. Novella plus four short stories, 183 pages. A simultaneous New Directions paperbook was also issued.

## Is this the true first?
US New Directions 1966 is the true first. The UK Secker & Warburg edition followed in 1968 in an expanded form (a novella and twelve short stories), so it is a later and textually different issue, not the first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book club edition traced for the first printing.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Knightly Quest: A Novella and Four Short Stories* by Tennessee Williams a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-knightly-quest-a-novella-and-four-short-stories
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-03.