# Is "The Loved One" by Evelyn Waugh a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh (Little, Brown, 1948) is identified by: Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1948. Precedence is corrected: the US Little, Brown edition (1948) is the first edition in book form, preceded only by the Horizon magazine appearance (February 1948).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1948
- First American edition, subtitled 'An Anglo-American Tragedy', in grey cloth with the spine lettered in green and a Samuel Bryant dust jacket
- This is the first edition in book form
- The text first appeared in the US magazine Horizon (February 1948) before any book edition
- Publisher imprint reads Little, Brown
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Evelyn Waugh |
| Publisher | Little, Brown |
| Year | 1948 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1948 |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1948. First American edition, subtitled 'An Anglo-American Tragedy', in grey cloth with the spine lettered in green and a Samuel Bryant dust jacket. This is the first edition in book form. The text first appeared in the US magazine Horizon (February 1948) before any book edition.

## Is this the true first?
Precedence is corrected: the US Little, Brown edition (1948) is the first edition in book form, preceded only by the Horizon magazine appearance (February 1948). The English Chapman & Hall edition followed later in 1948. The earlier claim that the UK edition is generally collected as the first is not correct for this title.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The Horizon magazine printing precedes both book editions; among books, the Little, Brown edition has priority over the English Chapman & Hall edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Loved One* by Evelyn Waugh a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-loved-one
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.