Publisher
Delacorte Press
Delacorte Press, an imprint of Dell now in Penguin Random House, published Slaughterhouse-Five in 1969; its older firsts state "First printing", while recent ones state "First Edition" with a full number row.
- Editions tracked
- 298
- First editions
- 165
- Books
- 296
- Years
- 1959 to 2025
Delacorte Press is a publisher active from 1959. We track 298 editions it published between 1959 and 2025, 165 of them first editions across 296 books. How Delacorte Press marked its first editions is set out below, with a checker for the year on your title page.
About Delacorte Press
Delacorte Press is an American imprint created by Dell Publishing, the New York company George T. Delacorte Jr. founded in 1921, and it is now part of Penguin Random House.
Dell built its business on magazines, comics and paperbacks before adding book imprints such as Delacorte. Seymour Lawrence, who launched his own imprint in 1965 and is credited with discovering Kurt Vonnegut, ran it as a Dell division for seventeen years before moving to E. P. Dutton in 1982. Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five came out under the Delacorte name on 31 March 1969.
Doubleday bought Dell in 1976. Bertelsmann acquired Doubleday in 1986 and formed Bantam Doubleday Dell, then bought Random House in 1998; Random House merged with Penguin in 2013, which is how Delacorte came to Penguin Random House. Dell no longer exists as a separate company.
Later Delacorte first editions include Diana Gabaldon's Outlander novel A Breath of Snow and Ashes (September 2005), which reached number one on the New York Times hardcover fiction list, and E. Lockhart's young adult novel We Were Liars (2014).
Holding a copy? The first edition checker shows Delacorte Press's practice for the year on your title page.
Identification
How to identify Delacorte Press first editions
Authors
Books
Published by Delacorte Press
Frequently asked questions
How do I identify a Delacorte Press first edition?
How many Delacorte Press books does MyVolumes track?
We track 298 editions published by Delacorte Press, 165 of them first editions, across 296 books.
Where these facts come from
- Dell Publishing, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- Seymour Lawrence, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- Slaughterhouse-Five, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- A Breath of Snow and Ashes, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- First Edition Identification by Publisher A-G, Quill & Brush (qbbooks.com)
- Kurt Vonnegut first edition identification points, Nocloo (nocloo.com)
- Slaughterhouse-Five, first edition, Bauman Rare Books (baumanrarebooks.com)
- Broken (Karin Slaughter, Delacorte) listings, AbeBooks UK (abebooks.co.uk)
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources listed. Checked 21 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.