# Is "Tourist Season" by Carl Hiaasen a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Tourist Season by Carl Hiaasen (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1986) is identified by: Putnam's printed no "First Edition" slug in this period, so identification rests entirely on the copyright page number line: the first printing carries the full row 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 reading left to right, and the "1" must be present. Census claim confirmed.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Putnam's printed no "First Edition" slug in this period, so identification rests entirely on the copyright page number line: the first printing carries the full row 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 reading left to right, and the "1" must be present
- Octavo in publisher's boards, 272 pp, in the first-issue pictorial dust jacket with the price present at the front flap (unclipped)
- Note a live disagreement among reference guides on when Putnam adopted the number row — Quill & Brush (qbbooks.com) dates it to 1985, while Books Tell You Why puts it at 1989 and describes 1960-88 firsts as simply carrying no impression statement, later printings adding "second impression," etc
- Multiple independent dealer descriptions of first printings of this 1986 title report the complete number line beginning with 1, so the copyright page itself is decisive and the Quill & Brush dating is the one that matches the book
- Publisher imprint reads G. P. Putnam's Sons
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Carl Hiaasen |
| Publisher | G. P. Putnam's Sons |
| Year | 1986 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Putnam's printed no "First Edition" slug in this period, so identification rests entirely on the copyright page number line: the first… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Putnam's printed no "First Edition" slug in this period, so identification rests entirely on the copyright page number line: the first printing carries the full row 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 reading left to right, and the "1" must be present. Octavo in publisher's boards, 272 pp, in the first-issue pictorial dust jacket with the price present at the front flap (unclipped). Note a live disagreement among reference guides on when Putnam adopted the number row — Quill & Brush (qbbooks.com) dates it to 1985, while Books Tell You Why puts it at 1989 and describes 1960-88 firsts as simply carrying no impression statement, later printings adding "second impression," etc. Multiple independent dealer descriptions of first printings of this 1986 title report the complete number line beginning with 1, so the copyright page itself is decisive and the Quill & Brush dating is the one that matches the book.

## Is this the true first?
Census claim confirmed. The US G. P. Putnam's Sons edition, New York, 1986, is the true first: Hiaasen is American and no earlier or simultaneous foreign-language edition exists. No UK hardcover of 1986 is documented in the sources consulted, so no UK-vs-US precedence question arises here. One framing correction worth carrying: Tourist Season is Hiaasen's first solo novel, not his first novel — Powder Burn (1981), Trap Line (1982) and A Death in China (1984) were written with William D. Montalbano — so dealer copy calling it "the author's first novel" is loose. The Warner Books US paperback (1987) is a reprint, not a "first thus."

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue of this title is documented in the sources consulted, so treat the following as the general 1980s screen rather than a title-specific point: check for a blind stamp (small dot, square, circle or triangle) impressed in the lower rear board near the spine, no price at the jacket front flap, thinner boards and lighter bulk than the trade issue, and absence of the Putnam number line. Any of those rules the copy out as a first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Tourist Season* by Carl Hiaasen a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/tourist-season
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.