Louis Sachar's Holes - True First?

I realize that the general rule that a true first is the book
published in the country of the author birth/residence. For example,
a true first for Margaret Atwood would be the book published in
Canada. However, I'm confused regarding whether the English edition
of the children's book, Holes by Louis Sachar is the true first. It
appears to be more highly valued on ABE than the U.S. edition. Is the
British edition the true first? Or is it the book jacket art that
makes it the more valued edition?

"John Warner" wrote...
 > I realize that the general rule that a true first is the book
 > published in the country of the author birth/residence. For example,
 > a true first for Margaret Atwood would be the book published in
 > Canada. However, I'm confused regarding whether the English edition
 > of the children's book, Holes by Louis Sachar is the true first. It
 > appears to be more highly valued on ABE than the U.S. edition. Is the
 > British edition the true first? Or is it the book jacket art that
 > makes it the more valued edition?

Perhaps you got different results, but my search at ABE found no listings
for first printings of the US edition. All the US copies priced lower than
the UK 1st/1sts were later pritnings. The only thing I saw like a US
1st/1st was a copy of the ARC going for $175, about three times the price of
the highest-priced UK first.

As for priority, the US edition, from FSG, was published in 1998;
Bloomsbury's UK version wasn't issued until 2000.


--
Jon Meyers
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