First Edition Points and Criteria for The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter (U.S.)

Year Published: 1965
Author Last Name: Porter
Author First Name: Katherine Anne
Publisher: Harcourt, Brace & World
Original Price: $5.95
Pages: 495

There is some debate over whether the true first edition was the American or UK edition. By the most strict definition, the UK edition was clearly published a year prior to the American edition. The American edition is stated as such on its copyright page. So if you want the true first edition of a book called The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter, which is basically a compilation of three previously published collections, then the UK edition is for you.

If you are a Pulitzer collector however, the answer is not nearly so clear-cut. The book published in the UK in 1964 was simply a compilation of previously published stories from three previously published volumes - "Flowering Judas"; "Pale Horse, Pale Rider"; and "The Leaning Tower and Other Stories". It had nothing new, and it was not the edition that won the Pulitzer in 1966 (books published in 1964 did not qualify for the 1966 prize). The edition that won the Pulitzer was the American edition, published in 1965. The American edition contained four new stories that had not previously been published in book form. Those stories were "Virgin Vioteta", "The Martyr", "Holiday", and "The Fig Tree". That makes the American edition a very different book than the UK edition. That is why many Pulitzer collectors want the American Edition. Some collect both.

Here is what the author had to say about the collection in the 1965 first American edition: "This collection of stories has been floating around the world in many editions, countries and languages, in three small volumes, for years. There are four stories added which have never been collected before, and it is by mere hazard they are here at all."

Below is the first American edition. "First American edition 1965" is stated on the copyright page.

The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter (U.S.) won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award.


Picture of the 1965 first edition dust jacket for The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter (U.S.).


Picture of the first edition copyright page for The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter (U.S.).


Picture of dust jacket where original $5.95 price is found for The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter (U.S.).


Picture of the back dust jacket for the first edition of The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter (U.S.).


Picture of the first edition Harcourt, Brace & World boards for The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter (U.S.).


Picture of the back dust jacket flap for the first edition of The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter (U.S.).


Picture of the first edition title page for The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter (U.S.).


Autograph: Signature of Katherine Anne Porter.

Other first edition points for books by Katherine Anne Porter include: Ship of Fools, The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter (UK).