Gravity's Rainbow

Book-club copies are the trap. The Book-of-the-Month Club hardcover and the Quality Paperback Book Club issue carry NO printed price anywhere and lack the '0273' flap code. The BOMC jacket is coated but not laminated (less glossy; the orange rubs more readily), and its cloud photograph across the title-page opening shows a fine half-tone dot pattern absent from the true first; some club boards bear a blind stamp near the foot of the rear board. The trade paperback is a legitimate first state, not a reprint; Bantam mass-market printings are later.