# Is "The Son of Perdition" by James Gould Cozzens a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Son of Perdition by James Gould Cozzens (William Morrow, 1929) is identified by: First edition, first printing, New York: William Morrow & Company, 1929. US first (Morrow, 1929).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, first printing, New York: William Morrow & Company, 1929
- Identified by the absence of any later-printing notice on the copyright page
- Bright yellow cloth stamped in black, patterned red endpapers
- Publisher imprint reads William Morrow
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | James Gould Cozzens |
| Publisher | William Morrow |
| Year | 1929 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, first printing, New York: William Morrow & Company, 1929 |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First edition, first printing, New York: William Morrow & Company, 1929. Identified by the absence of any later-printing notice on the copyright page. Bright yellow cloth stamped in black, patterned red endpapers.

## Is this the true first?
US first (Morrow, 1929). A UK Longmans, Green edition followed; sources disagree on whether it appeared in 1929 or 1930, so a precise UK year is not asserted.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book club edition for this title.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Son of Perdition* by James Gould Cozzens a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-son-of-perdition
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.