# Is "The Peregrine" by J. A. Baker a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Peregrine by J. A. Baker (Collins, 1967) is identified by: First edition, first impression: Collins, London, 1967, bound in black textured-paper boards with gilt spine lettering, olive endpapers, 191 pp. Collins, London, 1967 is the true first; the census claim is confirmed.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, first impression: Collins, London, 1967, bound in black textured-paper boards with gilt spine lettering, olive endpapers, 191 pp
- The jacket is the critical element — it carries a printed price at the flap (unclipped copies retain it), and the rear flap bears a photograph of a peregrine in place of the customary author portrait
- The jacket was originally pink on the spine and front panel and has faded to white or near-white on the great majority of surviving copies; an unfaded jacket is exceptional, and spine sunning is the normal state rather than evidence of a later issue
- Spotting to the top edge of the text block is common and is not a printing point
- Publisher imprint reads Collins
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | J. A. Baker |
| Publisher | Collins |
| Year | 1967 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, first impression: Collins, London, 1967, bound in black textured-paper boards with gilt spine lettering, olive endpapers… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First edition, first impression: Collins, London, 1967, bound in black textured-paper boards with gilt spine lettering, olive endpapers, 191 pp. The jacket is the critical element — it carries a printed price at the flap (unclipped copies retain it), and the rear flap bears a photograph of a peregrine in place of the customary author portrait. The jacket was originally pink on the spine and front panel and has faded to white or near-white on the great majority of surviving copies; an unfaded jacket is exceptional, and spine sunning is the normal state rather than evidence of a later issue. Spotting to the top edge of the text block is common and is not a printing point.

## Is this the true first?
Collins, London, 1967 is the true first; the census claim is confirmed. Harper & Row, New York, 1967 is the first American edition, published the same year and collected in its own right, but it does not precede the Collins issue — dealer listings consistently style it "First American" against the Collins "First UK Edition, First Printing." The title won the Duff Cooper Prize on the strength of the Collins issue.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented for the 1967 Collins printing in the sources consulted. The 2017 50th Anniversary Edition and the New York Review Books and Collins reissues (several carrying introductions by Robert Macfarlane or Mark Cocker) are "first thus" traps, not first editions.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Peregrine* by J. A. Baker a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-peregrine
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.