# Is "This House of Sky" by Ivan Doig a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of This House of Sky by Ivan Doig (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978) is identified by: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1978, 314 pp (ISBN 015190054X); Doig's first book, a National Book Award finalist. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (New York) 1978 is the true first, and the census is confirmed.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1978, 314 pp (ISBN 015190054X)
- Doig's first book, a National Book Award finalist
- HBJ's house convention for 1973 to about 1983 — documented independently by ILAB's publisher identification guide and by Evening Land Books — is "First edition" on the copyright page together with the letter code "BCDE," the leading "A" having been dropped in exactly these years; later printings shed the leading letters, reading "CDE" for a second printing, "DE" for a third, and so on, and drop the "First edition" line
- This title falls squarely inside that window, so the copyright page is the test; note that the letter line is the documented house rule for the period rather than a collation published for this title specifically, and should be confirmed on the copy in hand
- The book is bound in quarter green cloth over paper-covered boards, and the first-issue jacket is priced at the front flap — dealers (Town's End Books, ABAA) record price-clipping as a condition defect, so the price should be present at the flap on an intact copy
- Publisher imprint reads Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Ivan Doig |
| Publisher | Harcourt Brace Jovanovich |
| Year | 1978 |
| True first | British edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1978, 314 pp (ISBN 015190054X) |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1978, 314 pp (ISBN 015190054X); Doig's first book, a National Book Award finalist. HBJ's house convention for 1973 to about 1983 — documented independently by ILAB's publisher identification guide and by Evening Land Books — is "First edition" on the copyright page together with the letter code "BCDE," the leading "A" having been dropped in exactly these years; later printings shed the leading letters, reading "CDE" for a second printing, "DE" for a third, and so on, and drop the "First edition" line. This title falls squarely inside that window, so the copyright page is the test; note that the letter line is the documented house rule for the period rather than a collation published for this title specifically, and should be confirmed on the copy in hand. The book is bound in quarter green cloth over paper-covered boards, and the first-issue jacket is priced at the front flap — dealers (Town's End Books, ABAA) record price-clipping as a condition defect, so the price should be present at the flap on an intact copy.

## Is this the true first?
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (New York) 1978 is the true first, and the census is confirmed. No contemporaneous British edition surfaced in the sources consulted, so no UK-vs-US precedence question arises and the US first is the sole collected first. One caution: HBJ records for the title show two closely related ISBNs (015190054X and 0151900558); the relationship between them is not resolved in the sources consulted and should not be presented as a binding or issue point until it is.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No specific book-club edition is documented in the sources consulted, and none should be asserted for this title. The operative reprint test is the copyright page: absence of the "First edition" line and the "BCDE" letter code means the copy is not a first printing, whatever the title-page date says. The usual club markers — a blindstamp or blind-embossed square on the rear board, an unpriced jacket, and lighter bulk than the trade issue — are generic to the period rather than documented for this book. Later Harcourt and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt trade paperbacks (e.g. ISBN 0156899825) are reprints.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *This House of Sky* by Ivan Doig a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/this-house-of-sky
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.