The Stranger Beside Me

The census claim is confirmed: the Norton hardcover (New York, 1980) is the true first, and the mass-market Signet paperback that carried the book to its mass readership is a later, separate issue — the hardcover printing was small, which is why firsts are scarce. No UK or foreign-language edition precedes. The significant trap here is not UK-vs-US but the author's own serial revisions: Rule repeatedly expanded the book with new afterwords and updates (editions dated 1986, 1989, 2000, 2008 and 2021), and every one of those is 'first thus' with added text, not the 1980 first. A stated '20th Anniversary' or 'Updated' edition is never the true first regardless of what the copyright page's number line shows.