# Is "The Night of the Iguana" by Tennessee Williams a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams (New Directions, 1962) is identified by: Octavo, New York, New Directions, 1962, collating [6], 7-128 pages, bound in black cloth with green lettering on the spine, and issued with a frontispiece. The US New Directions edition is the true first edition in book form, published in 1962 (the play premiered on Broadway in late 1961, but the book followed the next year).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Octavo, New York, New Directions, 1962, collating [6], 7-128 pages, bound in black cloth with green lettering on the spine, and issued with a frontispiece
- The first-state dust jacket is illustrated by Nicola Wood and carries its printed price on the front flap (unclipped on an as-issued copy)
- Publisher imprint reads New Directions
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Tennessee Williams |
| Publisher | New Directions |
| Year | 1962 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Octavo, New York, New Directions, 1962, collating [6], 7-128 pages, bound in black cloth… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
Octavo, New York, New Directions, 1962, collating [6], 7-128 pages, bound in black cloth with green lettering on the spine, and issued with a frontispiece. The first-state dust jacket is illustrated by Nicola Wood and carries its printed price on the front flap (unclipped on an as-issued copy).

## Is this the true first?
The US New Directions edition is the true first edition in book form, published in 1962 (the play premiered on Broadway in late 1961, but the book followed the next year). The UK Secker and Warburg edition followed in 1963.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No early book club edition; the earliest state is the New Directions cloth first printing in the Nicola Wood jacket.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Night of the Iguana* by Tennessee Williams a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-night-of-the-iguana
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.