# Is "The Last Night of Summer" by Erskine Caldwell a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Last Night of Summer by Erskine Caldwell (Farrar, Straus and Company, 1963) is identified by: First printing, with no statement of later printing on the copyright page; 178 pages. US first edition, Farrar, Straus and Company, New York, 1963.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First printing, with no statement of later printing on the copyright page
- 178 pages
- Blue cloth spine with green and white lettering, in the pictorial dust jacket with the printed price present on the front flap
- Publisher imprint reads Farrar, Straus and Company
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Erskine Caldwell |
| Publisher | Farrar, Straus and Company |
| Year | 1963 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First printing, with no statement of later printing on the copyright page |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First printing, with no statement of later printing on the copyright page; 178 pages. Blue cloth spine with green and white lettering, in the pictorial dust jacket with the printed price present on the front flap.

## Is this the true first?
US first edition, Farrar, Straus and Company, New York, 1963. The UK edition followed from Heinemann, London, in 1964.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Later printings exist and are stated on the copyright page; identify the true first by the absence of any later-printing statement and by the priced pictorial jacket.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Last Night of Summer* by Erskine Caldwell a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-last-night-of-summer
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.