# Is "The Sound and the Fury / As I Lay Dying" by William Faulkner a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Sound and the Fury / As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner (Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith, 1930) is identified by: For 'As I Lay Dying' (1930) the key first-issue point is the broken/dropped initial capital 'I' on page 11: the first 750 copies of the 2,522-copy first printing show the misaligned 'I' before the page-11 plate was replaced, with the corrected state following. Both are US Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith (New York) firsts: 'The Sound and the Fury' 1929 and 'As I Lay Dying' 1930.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- For 'As I Lay Dying'
- the key first-issue point is the broken/dropped initial capital 'I' on page 11: the first 750 copies of the 2,522-copy first printing show the misaligned 'I' before the page-11 plate was replaced, with the corrected state following
- The book is bound in publisher's beige/tan cloth stamped in brown with a brown top stain
- For 'The Sound and the Fury'
- the trade first is bound in black-and-white Art Deco patterned boards over a white cloth spine lettered in black, from a first printing of 1,789 copies
- Publisher imprint reads Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | William Faulkner |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith |
| Year | 1930 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | For 'As I Lay Dying' |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
For 'As I Lay Dying' (1930) the key first-issue point is the broken/dropped initial capital 'I' on page 11: the first 750 copies of the 2,522-copy first printing show the misaligned 'I' before the page-11 plate was replaced, with the corrected state following. The book is bound in publisher's beige/tan cloth stamped in brown with a brown top stain. For 'The Sound and the Fury' (1929) the trade first is bound in black-and-white Art Deco patterned boards over a white cloth spine lettered in black, from a first printing of 1,789 copies.

## Is this the true first?
Both are US Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith (New York) firsts: 'The Sound and the Fury' 1929 and 'As I Lay Dying' 1930. The corrected page-11 state of 'As I Lay Dying' follows the broken-'I' state within the same first printing.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Later printings and reissues repair the broken page-11 type in 'As I Lay Dying.' Book-club reprints of these titles are typically identifiable by a blind-stamped mark to the rear board and lack the original binding and point details.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Sound and the Fury / As I Lay Dying* by William Faulkner a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-sound-and-the-fury-as-i-lay-dying
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.