# Is "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values" by Robert M. Pirsig a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by Robert M. Pirsig (William Morrow & Company, 1974) is identified by: First printing is identified by a full number line on the copyright page beginning with 1 ("1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10"); any line lacking the 1 is a later printing. William Morrow, New York, 1974 is the true first — the United States is the country of first publication and the census claim is confirmed.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First printing is identified by a full number line on the copyright page beginning with 1 ("1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10"); any line lacking the 1 is a later printing
- Bound in quarter black cloth over black to dark-grey paper-covered boards with silver spine lettering, green endpapers and pastedowns, collating [12], 11-412, [6] pp
- The jacket was designed by Paul Bacon and shows a wrench emerging from plant leaves; the first-issue jacket carries a printed price at the front flap
- The binding is notoriously cheaply made — separation of the backstrip from the head of the text block is endemic to this title and is a manufacturing weakness, not a printing point
- Publisher imprint reads William Morrow & Company
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Robert M. Pirsig |
| Publisher | William Morrow & Company |
| Year | 1974 |
| True first | British edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First printing is identified by a full number line on the copyright page beginning with 1 ("1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10"); any line lacking the 1… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
First printing is identified by a full number line on the copyright page beginning with 1 ("1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10"); any line lacking the 1 is a later printing. Bound in quarter black cloth over black to dark-grey paper-covered boards with silver spine lettering, green endpapers and pastedowns, collating [12], 11-412, [6] pp. The jacket was designed by Paul Bacon and shows a wrench emerging from plant leaves; the first-issue jacket carries a printed price at the front flap. The binding is notoriously cheaply made — separation of the backstrip from the head of the text block is endemic to this title and is a manufacturing weakness, not a printing point.

## Is this the true first?
William Morrow, New York, 1974 is the true first — the United States is the country of first publication and the census claim is confirmed. The Bodley Head, London, 1974 is the first British edition and follows; it is separately collected and is readily told apart by its John Sewell jacket, which shows a romanesque figure seated on a motorcycle with a plant growing from its head, against Paul Bacon's wrench-and-leaves design on the Morrow jacket. Do not accept a Bodley Head copy as the true first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Book-club printings from this period exist for the title but no title-specific book-club points (blind stamp position, board or size variation) are documented in the sources consulted, so none should be asserted; a copy lacking the number line beginning with 1 is not a first printing regardless. The Bantam mass-market paperbacks from 1975-76 onward and the later anniversary editions carrying Pirsig's afterword are "first thus" traps.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values* by Robert M. Pirsig a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance-an-inquiry-into-va
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.