# Is "Wolf Song" by Harvey Fergusson a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Wolf Song by Harvey Fergusson (Alfred A. Knopf / Borzoi Books, 1927) is identified by: Two issues appeared under the 1927 Knopf first edition. US Knopf 1927 is the true first; the Knopf imprint of the period reads "New York and London" (Borzoi Books), so there is no separate earlier UK edition to weigh.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Two issues appeared under the 1927 Knopf first edition
- The signed limited issue carries a limitation leaf stating that of the first edition of Wolf Song 100 copies have been printed on Borzoi all-rag paper and signed by the author; it is numbered, bound in two-tone quarter cloth over marbled boards, issued in a slipcase, and collates [10] + 206 pages
- The first trade issue is bound in purple cloth with titling and decoration stamped in blue and yellow on the spine and front cover, with a yellow topstain, deckled fore- and bottom-edges and pictorial endpapers, in a pictorial jacket with the price present at the flap
- 206 pages, illustrated
- The sources consulted do not record a copyright-page edition statement for the Knopf first, so identification of the trade issue rests on the 1927 Knopf/Borzoi imprint together with the binding, topstain, deckled edges and pictorial endpapers described above
- Publisher imprint reads Alfred A. Knopf / Borzoi Books
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Harvey Fergusson |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf / Borzoi Books |
| Year | 1927 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Two issues appeared under the 1927 Knopf first edition |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Two issues appeared under the 1927 Knopf first edition. The signed limited issue carries a limitation leaf stating that of the first edition of Wolf Song 100 copies have been printed on Borzoi all-rag paper and signed by the author; it is numbered, bound in two-tone quarter cloth over marbled boards, issued in a slipcase, and collates [10] + 206 pages. The first trade issue is bound in purple cloth with titling and decoration stamped in blue and yellow on the spine and front cover, with a yellow topstain, deckled fore- and bottom-edges and pictorial endpapers, in a pictorial jacket with the price present at the flap; 206 pages, illustrated. The sources consulted do not record a copyright-page edition statement for the Knopf first, so identification of the trade issue rests on the 1927 Knopf/Borzoi imprint together with the binding, topstain, deckled edges and pictorial endpapers described above.

## Is this the true first?
US Knopf 1927 is the true first; the Knopf imprint of the period reads "New York and London" (Borzoi Books), so there is no separate earlier UK edition to weigh. Both issues of the first edition are collected and should be named together: the signed limited issue of 100 copies on Borzoi all-rag paper, and the first trade issue -- the trade being sought because its pictorial jacket is very uncommon. "First thus" traps, one of them directly relevant to this shelf: the Grosset & Dunlap reprint, and the 1936 Knopf omnibus Followers of the Sun, which gathers Wolf Song with The Blood of the Conquerors and In Those Days. The omnibus is a first of the collection only, not of Wolf Song. The Bison Books / University of Nebraska Press paperback is a much later reissue.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue of the 1927 Knopf first is documented in the sources consulted. The reprint to know is Grosset & Dunlap, which carries the G&D imprint on the spine and title page and lacks the Knopf/Borzoi devices; the 1936 Followers of the Sun omnibus is the other common substitution for the first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Wolf Song* by Harvey Fergusson a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/wolf-song
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.