# Is "The Sheep-Pig" by Dick King-Smith a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Sheep-Pig by Dick King-Smith (Victor Gollancz, 1983) is identified by: First edition, first impression: London, Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1983, illustrated by Mary Rayner, the jacket illustration also by Rayner. UK Victor Gollancz (London), 1983 is the true first and precedes the American edition by two years; it won the 1984 Guardian Children's Fiction Award.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, first impression: London, Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1983, illustrated by Mary Rayner, the jacket illustration also by Rayner
- Gollancz placed no first-edition statement on its firsts before 1984 — it adopted the 'First published in...' line only in that year — so identification rests on the 1983 copyright date together with the absence of any reprint or impression statement; later printings are noted on the copyright page
- Octavo, original cloth lettered at the spine, in the pictorial Rayner jacket, which should be unclipped with the price present at the flap
- Cloth colour is inconsistently reported across dealer descriptions and is not a reliable point
- Publisher imprint reads Victor Gollancz
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Dick King-Smith |
| Publisher | Victor Gollancz |
| Year | 1983 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | First edition, first impression: London, Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1983, illustrated by Mary Rayner, the jacket illustration also by Rayner |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
First edition, first impression: London, Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1983, illustrated by Mary Rayner, the jacket illustration also by Rayner. Gollancz placed no first-edition statement on its firsts before 1984 — it adopted the 'First published in...' line only in that year — so identification rests on the 1983 copyright date together with the absence of any reprint or impression statement; later printings are noted on the copyright page. Octavo, original cloth lettered at the spine, in the pictorial Rayner jacket, which should be unclipped with the price present at the flap. Cloth colour is inconsistently reported across dealer descriptions and is not a reliable point.

## Is this the true first?
UK Victor Gollancz (London), 1983 is the true first and precedes the American edition by two years; it won the 1984 Guardian Children's Fiction Award. The first American edition is Crown Publishers, New York, 1985, retitled 'Babe: The Gallant Pig', retaining Mary Rayner's illustrations. Both are collected — the Gollancz as the true first, the Crown as the first American edition and the first appearance under the 'Babe' title.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
On the Crown 'Babe: The Gallant Pig', Crown had adopted a first-edition statement plus a number row by this date; a first printing shows 'First American Edition' with a complete number line including 1. Crown did not reliably remove that statement on reprints — copies are recorded stating 'First American Edition' with a full 10-to-1 number line but 'Second Printing' added beneath, and others carrying a broken later line (e.g. 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2). Read the number line and any printing statement, never the edition statement alone. No book-club issue of the Gollancz is documented in the sources consulted; reprints and tie-in printings following the 1995 film are the common trap.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Sheep-Pig* by Dick King-Smith a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-sheep-pig
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.