The Bridges of Madison County

The Warner Books (New York) edition of April 1992 is the true first and the census claim is correct. Waller is American and this was a US debut from a US publisher; no UK or foreign edition preceding or simultaneous with the Warner April 1992 printing was found in the sources consulted, and the UK edition followed only after the book became a phenomenon. The trap here is chronological rather than geographic: the April 1992 first printing preceded the word-of-mouth explosion and is scarce, while the millions of copies in circulation are later printings struck from the same plates and dated to the same year — they are separable only by the copyright-page printing statement and the number line, not by appearance. Later gift, illustrated, and 1995 film tie-in issues are "first thus" at best and are not the first edition.