# Is "Valdez Is Coming" by Elmore Leonard a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Valdez Is Coming by Elmore Leonard (Robert Hale, 1969) is identified by: A hardcover first does exist and it precedes: Robert Hale, London, 1969, cloth in a pictorial dust jacket, catalogued as the first edition by James M. True first: Robert Hale, London, 1969 (hardcover).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- CENSUS CLAIM REFUTED. A hardcover first does exist and it precedes: Robert Hale, London, 1969, cloth in a pictorial dust jacket, catalogued as the first edition by James M. Pickard (ABA/ILAB) and by Rooke Books (PBFA), the latter stating explicitly that "This first edition, published in the UK, precedes the first US edition, which was released in 1970." The Hale printing is reported to have been small and directed largely at the UK library market, and surviving copies frequently carry library stamps (the Rooke copy bears a Leicestershire County Library stamp to the title-page verso); jackets are scarce enough that facsimile wrappers are supplied, so the wrapper should be checked
- The US edition — Fawcett/Gold Medal, Greenwich, October 1970 — is a paperback original with cover art by Frank McCarthy, identified by the Gold Medal catalogue number R2328 on the wrapper and the original printed cover price, with no printing statement
- Publisher imprint reads Robert Hale
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Elmore Leonard |
| Publisher | Robert Hale |
| Year | 1969 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | CENSUS CLAIM REFUTED. A hardcover first does exist and it precedes: Robert Hale, London, 1969, cloth in a pictorial dust jacket, catalogued… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
CENSUS CLAIM REFUTED. A hardcover first does exist and it precedes: Robert Hale, London, 1969, cloth in a pictorial dust jacket, catalogued as the first edition by James M. Pickard (ABA/ILAB) and by Rooke Books (PBFA), the latter stating explicitly that "This first edition, published in the UK, precedes the first US edition, which was released in 1970." The Hale printing is reported to have been small and directed largely at the UK library market, and surviving copies frequently carry library stamps (the Rooke copy bears a Leicestershire County Library stamp to the title-page verso); jackets are scarce enough that facsimile wrappers are supplied, so the wrapper should be checked. The US edition — Fawcett/Gold Medal, Greenwich, October 1970 — is a paperback original with cover art by Frank McCarthy, identified by the Gold Medal catalogue number R2328 on the wrapper and the original printed cover price, with no printing statement.

## Is this the true first?
True first: Robert Hale, London, 1969 (hardcover). First US: Fawcett/Gold Medal, Greenwich, October 1970 (paperback original, R2328) — a paperback original in the US, which is the point the census note was reaching for, but it is the first American edition, not the true first. Both are collected: the Hale as the true first, the Gold Medal as the first US and the form in which American readers met the book. Accounts of the Gold Medal printing tells conflict — one widely cited collector account offers both the printed cover price and the presence of stills from the 1971 Burt Lancaster film as first-printing evidence, but a 1970 first printing cannot carry stills from a 1971 film, so that account is unreliable on this point; rely on the R2328 number and the absence of any later-printing notice.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue documented for the Hale. For the US paperback, the traps are later Gold Medal printings and film tie-in issues keyed to the 1971 Edwin Sherin / Burt Lancaster adaptation; these carry a later printed cover price and, where present, film imagery not possible on a pre-film 1970 first printing. Later reprint paperbacks (e.g. Bantam) are plainly distinguished by imprint.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Valdez Is Coming* by Elmore Leonard a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/valdez-is-coming
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.