# Is "The Wide Net and Other Stories" by Eudora Welty a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Wide Net and Other Stories by Eudora Welty (Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1943) is identified by: "first edition" stated on the copyright page; a story collection, octavo, 214 pages, bound in publisher's navy blue cloth lettered in white on the spine. US first edition (Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1943); the UK edition (John Lane / The Bodley Head, 1945) follows.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- "first edition" stated on the copyright page; a story collection, octavo, 214 pages, bound in publisher's navy blue cloth lettered in white on the spine
- The first-issue dust jacket was designed by E. McKnight Kauffer and carries its printed price on the front flap; the pink portion of the spine lettering is notoriously fugitive and has usually faded toward invisibility, so surviving pink spine color is a good sign of an early, well-preserved jacket
- A wartime-manufactured book on acidic paper, it is seldom found clean and often shows foxing carrying to the endpapers
- Publisher imprint reads Harcourt, Brace and Company
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Eudora Welty |
| Publisher | Harcourt, Brace and Company |
| Year | 1943 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | "first edition" stated on the copyright page; a story collection, octavo, 214 pages, bound in publisher's navy blue cloth lettered in white… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
"first edition" stated on the copyright page; a story collection, octavo, 214 pages, bound in publisher's navy blue cloth lettered in white on the spine. The first-issue dust jacket was designed by E. McKnight Kauffer and carries its printed price on the front flap; the pink portion of the spine lettering is notoriously fugitive and has usually faded toward invisibility, so surviving pink spine color is a good sign of an early, well-preserved jacket. A wartime-manufactured book on acidic paper, it is seldom found clean and often shows foxing carrying to the endpapers.

## Is this the true first?
US first edition (Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1943); the UK edition (John Lane / The Bodley Head, 1945) follows.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Later reprints drop the "first edition" statement from the copyright page. On the jacket the printed front-flap price should be present, though price-clipping alone does not determine issue.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Wide Net and Other Stories* by Eudora Welty a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-wide-net-and-other-stories
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.