# Is "The New Centurions" by Joseph Wambaugh a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The New Centurions by Joseph Wambaugh (Little, Brown, 1970) is identified by: "FIRST EDITION" is stated on the copyright page. US Little, Brown (Boston, 1970) is the true first, and the census claim is confirmed — Wambaugh's debut and the founding modern police procedural.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- "FIRST EDITION" is stated on the copyright page
- The decisive jacket point is the author biography on the rear panel, which in the first printing describes Wambaugh as "half-Mexican" — wording removed from later printings — and the first-printing jacket carries no mention anywhere of a Book-of-the-Month Club selection
- The book is an octavo of 376 pages, bound in blue paper-covered boards with a blue cloth spine strip lettered in bright silver, with blue endpapers, and the publisher's Little, Brown / Atlantic device blind-stamped on the rear board
- The jacket should be priced at the front flap (price present, not clipped) — but see the book-club note, because price presence alone does not establish a first on this title
- Publisher imprint reads Little, Brown
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Joseph Wambaugh |
| Publisher | Little, Brown |
| Year | 1970 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | "FIRST EDITION" is stated on the copyright page |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
"FIRST EDITION" is stated on the copyright page. The decisive jacket point is the author biography on the rear panel, which in the first printing describes Wambaugh as "half-Mexican" — wording removed from later printings — and the first-printing jacket carries no mention anywhere of a Book-of-the-Month Club selection. The book is an octavo of 376 pages, bound in blue paper-covered boards with a blue cloth spine strip lettered in bright silver, with blue endpapers, and the publisher's Little, Brown / Atlantic device blind-stamped on the rear board. The jacket should be priced at the front flap (price present, not clipped) — but see the book-club note, because price presence alone does not establish a first on this title.

## Is this the true first?
US Little, Brown (Boston, 1970) is the true first, and the census claim is confirmed — Wambaugh's debut and the founding modern police procedural. The first UK edition is Michael Joseph (London, 1971), a year later, and is separately collected as the first British edition; UK Sphere and Futura issues are paperback reprints. Later Little, Brown Book Group, Quercus, and Grand Central reissues (some with a Michael Connelly introduction) are first-thus, not firsts.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
This is the classic trap on this title. The book-club edition is otherwise identical to the trade first and its jacket even carries a printed price, so price presence alone will not sort them. Two documented tells decide it: the club jacket adds a "Book of the Month Selection" statement to the left of the price, which is absent from the trade first; and the club board carries a small square or round blindstamp at the lower right corner of the rear board near the spine, which is a different mark from the publisher's own larger blind-stamped Little, Brown / Atlantic device found on genuine firsts. Check both before calling a copy a first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The New Centurions* by Joseph Wambaugh a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-new-centurions
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.