The Grapes of Wrath

US Viking Press trade first (New York, April 1939) is the true first — and the only first-edition form. NO signed or numbered limited edition was issued to precede or parallel it; signed copies exist only as individually inscribed presentation copies, not as a limited issue. The UK first (Heinemann, London, September 1939) follows: US precedes UK. A separate deluxe illustrated edition appeared LATER, in 1940, from the Limited Editions Club — two quarto volumes with 67 Thomas Hart Benton lithographs, one of 1,146 copies signed by Benton (the illustrator, not Steinbeck), in slipcase. That LEC set is a noted 'first illustrated edition' but a 1940 production that does not precede the 1939 trade first.