The Eiger Sanction

The census claim holds. The true first is Crown Publishers (New York), 1972 — the debut under the Trevanian pseudonym (Rodney William Whitaker) — preceding the British first, Heinemann (London), 1973, by a year. Both are collected: the Crown as the true first, the Heinemann as the UK first. First-thus trap: Crown reissued the novel in May 2005 as a trade paperback in a matched set of five Trevanian titles; that is a reprint, not a first.