The Death of Grass

Census claim CONFIRMED as to precedence, but the US year is NOT settled and the census's "1957" should not be stated as fact. Michael Joseph, London, 1956 is the true first — dealers describing the American issue agree the British edition came first under the original title. The first American edition is No Blade of Grass, Simon and Schuster, New York, in yellow and green cloth-backed boards; sources conflict on its year. Mostly Dystopian Books catalogues it as "First American edition, 1956," while the Open Library/Library of Congress record gives Simon and Schuster, New York, 1957 with LCCN 57005674 and the note "First published in London in 1956 under title: The death of grass." That conflict is unresolved on the present evidence, so the US edition is given here as "Simon and Schuster, New York, 1956 or 1957 (disputed)." The retitling is the alternate-title trap; the novel was also serialised in the US in The Saturday Evening Post as No Blade of Grass, and the 1970 film of that title drives tie-in first-thus reissues.