# Is "Under the Volcano" by Malcolm Lowry a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry (Reynal & Hitchcock, 1947) is identified by: New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1947 — first edition, first printing, published 19 February 1947. The census claim is confirmed, and this is the classic reversed-precedence trap: Lowry was British, but the American Reynal & Hitchcock edition of 19 February 1947 precedes the London Jonathan Cape edition of 1 September 1947 by roughly six months, so the US issue is the true first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1947 — first edition, first printing, published 19 February 1947
- Octavo, 375pp, bound in light grey cloth lettered in crimson on the front panel and the spine
- The jacket is the three-colour contour-map design, and the first printing is signalled on the jacket's rear panel by the header 'Advance critical acclaim' above four blurbs (Kain, Warren, Aiken, Spender)
- Later jackets replace that header with 'Critical Acclaim For A Great Novel', so the rear-panel wording is the working point of issue; the jacket should be unclipped with the price present at the flap
- An uncorrected proof of the Reynal & Hitchcock edition is also recorded in the auction record
- Publisher imprint reads Reynal & Hitchcock
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Malcolm Lowry |
| Publisher | Reynal & Hitchcock |
| Year | 1947 |
| True first | British edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1947 — first edition, first printing, published 19 February 1947 |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1947 — first edition, first printing, published 19 February 1947. Octavo, 375pp, bound in light grey cloth lettered in crimson on the front panel and the spine. The jacket is the three-colour contour-map design, and the first printing is signalled on the jacket's rear panel by the header 'Advance critical acclaim' above four blurbs (Kain, Warren, Aiken, Spender). Later jackets replace that header with 'Critical Acclaim For A Great Novel', so the rear-panel wording is the working point of issue; the jacket should be unclipped with the price present at the flap. An uncorrected proof of the Reynal & Hitchcock edition is also recorded in the auction record.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim is confirmed, and this is the classic reversed-precedence trap: Lowry was British, but the American Reynal & Hitchcock edition of 19 February 1947 precedes the London Jonathan Cape edition of 1 September 1947 by roughly six months, so the US issue is the true first. The Cape is the first English edition and is collected in its own right; dealer descriptions of its cloth conflict in the sources consulted (grey-green cloth versus pale blue boards), so no binding is asserted for it here. The American edition was hailed and sold strongly in North America, while the book was poorly received in Britain and soon remaindered.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The reliable reprint tell is the jacket rear panel: 'Critical Acclaim For A Great Novel' in place of 'Advance critical acclaim' marks a later issue, and a map-jacket alone proves nothing. No book-club-specific tells for this title were documented in the sources consulted. Later Cape, Vintage and Penguin reprints and the Suntup fine-press edition are 'first thus' at best.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Under the Volcano* by Malcolm Lowry a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/under-the-volcano
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.