# Is "The Pigman" by Paul Zindel a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Pigman by Paul Zindel (Harper & Row, 1968) is identified by: Published 12 October 1968 by Harper & Row, New York; Zindel's first book. The US Harper & Row edition (New York, 1968) is the true first; no simultaneous or prior UK edition is documented in the sources consulted, and British issues postdate it, so there is no meaningful UK-vs-US precedence contest.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Published 12 October 1968 by Harper & Row, New York
- Zindel's first book
- The first printing states "FIRST EDITION" on the copyright page AND carries Harper's two-letter printing code, in which the first letter is the month (A=January through M=December, skipping J) and the second letter is the year — S = 1968, the final year the code was used
- 8vo, in full-colour pictorial boards with the publisher's full-colour pictorial dust jacket, which should be present and priced at the flap
- The statement alone is not sufficient: Harper & Row added number lines from 1969 and frequently failed to delete the "FIRST EDITION" slug from later printings, so the code must be checked and no number line should be present
- Caveat for the record: no dealer listing consulted transcribes the actual code letters in a copy of this title, so verify the code against the year-letter S rule in hand rather than assuming a specific pairing
- Publisher imprint reads Harper & Row

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Paul Zindel |
| Publisher | Harper & Row |
| Year | 1968 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | Published 12 October 1968 by Harper & Row, New York |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
Published 12 October 1968 by Harper & Row, New York; Zindel's first book. The first printing states "FIRST EDITION" on the copyright page AND carries Harper's two-letter printing code, in which the first letter is the month (A=January through M=December, skipping J) and the second letter is the year — S = 1968, the final year the code was used. 8vo, in full-colour pictorial boards with the publisher's full-colour pictorial dust jacket, which should be present and priced at the flap. The statement alone is not sufficient: Harper & Row added number lines from 1969 and frequently failed to delete the "FIRST EDITION" slug from later printings, so the code must be checked and no number line should be present. Caveat for the record: no dealer listing consulted transcribes the actual code letters in a copy of this title, so verify the code against the year-letter S rule in hand rather than assuming a specific pairing. Pagination is reported inconsistently across dealers (182 pp. and [vi] 185 pp. both appear) and should not be used as a point.

## Is this the true first?
The US Harper & Row edition (New York, 1968) is the true first; no simultaneous or prior UK edition is documented in the sources consulted, and British issues postdate it, so there is no meaningful UK-vs-US precedence contest. Only the US edition is named because no competing first is attested. Later HarperCollins reprints, including the 2005 issue, are reprints and not "first thus" candidates.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Harper issued a library/institutional binding under the Harper Crest imprint in pictorial boards without a dust jacket — this is not the trade first and is commonly offered as a first edition; ex-library markings and the absence of an issued jacket are the tells. The key reprint trap is post-1969 Harper printings that retain the "FIRST EDITION" statement while adding a number line at the end of the book or on the copyright page. Harper Trophy, Bantam, and Dell paperbacks are reprints.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Pigman* by Paul Zindel a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-pigman
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.