# Is "Triplanetary" by E. E. 'Doc' Smith a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Triplanetary by E. E. 'Doc' Smith (Fantasy Press, 1948) is identified by: First book edition: Fantasy Press, Reading, Pennsylvania, 1948. US original — the Fantasy Press 1948 edition is the first appearance in book form anywhere, and the census claim is correct.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First book edition: Fantasy Press, Reading, Pennsylvania, 1948
- Fantasy Press states "First Edition" on the copyright page with no further printing noted — this is the house practice recorded by Quill & Brush ("States 'First Edition' on copyright page") and confirmed by L. W. Currey's Fantasy Press catalogue entries ("First edition so stated on copyright page")
- Two issues were made up from the same first printing: a limited issue with an integral limitation leaf reading in the Fantasy Press form "Limited to [N] copies of which [M] are numbered and autographed", hand-numbered and signed by Smith, and an unsigned trade issue that simply lacks that leaf; both are the first edition, and the absence of a limitation leaf does not demote a copy to a reprint
- Physical points reported consistently by dealers: sky-blue cloth over boards with author and title stamped in gilt on the spine, 287 pp., roughly 5¼ × 7⅝ inches, with jacket and interior illustrations by A. J. Donnell; the jacket should be priced at the flap
- Publisher imprint reads Fantasy Press
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | E. E. 'Doc' Smith |
| Publisher | Fantasy Press |
| Year | 1948 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First book edition: Fantasy Press, Reading, Pennsylvania, 1948 |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First book edition: Fantasy Press, Reading, Pennsylvania, 1948. Fantasy Press states "First Edition" on the copyright page with no further printing noted — this is the house practice recorded by Quill & Brush ("States 'First Edition' on copyright page") and confirmed by L. W. Currey's Fantasy Press catalogue entries ("First edition so stated on copyright page"). Two issues were made up from the same first printing: a limited issue with an integral limitation leaf reading in the Fantasy Press form "Limited to [N] copies of which [M] are numbered and autographed", hand-numbered and signed by Smith, and an unsigned trade issue that simply lacks that leaf; both are the first edition, and the absence of a limitation leaf does not demote a copy to a reprint. Physical points reported consistently by dealers: sky-blue cloth over boards with author and title stamped in gilt on the spine, 287 pp., roughly 5¼ × 7⅝ inches, with jacket and interior illustrations by A. J. Donnell; the jacket should be priced at the flap.

## Is this the true first?
US original — the Fantasy Press 1948 edition is the first appearance in book form anywhere, and the census claim is correct. There is no earlier or competing UK edition and no original-language issue elsewhere. The important trap is textual rather than geographic: the 1948 book is NOT a reissue of the 1934 Amazing Stories serial of the same name. It is a substantially rewritten fix-up retrofitted as the Lensman opener — Book One ("Dawn") and Book Two ("The World War") are new material, and only Book Three revises and expands the 1934 serial. A copy described as "the 1934 Triplanetary in book form" is misdescribed; that text had no separate book edition.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Quill & Brush warns explicitly that Fantasy Press "may have occasionally left 'First Edition' statement of original publisher on offset reprints with their imprint" — so the copyright-page statement alone is not sufficient. Always read the imprint on the spine, title page and jacket: a "First Edition" statement under any imprint other than Fantasy Press, Reading, PA is a carried-over statement on a reprint, not a first. The novel was later gathered into the Fantasy Press "History of Civilization" Lensman omnibus set (1955), which is a separate limited edition and not the 1948 first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Triplanetary* by E. E. 'Doc' Smith a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/triplanetary
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.