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.
Delacorte Press is a publisher active from 1965. We track 307 editions it published between 1965 and 2025, 190 of them first editions across 303 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 a New York imprint that began inside Dell Publishing, the company George T. Delacorte Jr. started in 1921 with one magazine and two employees. Dell grew into a large magazine house, issued comic books from 1929 to 1974 and moved into paperbacks in the early 1940s; Delacorte was one of its imprints alongside Dial Press, Yearling and Laurel Leaf.
Collectors know the name chiefly through the editor Seymour Lawrence, who launched his own imprint in 1965 and ran it as a division of Dell for seventeen years before taking it to E. P. Dutton in 1982. Lawrence is credited with discovering Kurt Vonnegut, who called him a very good scout of talent, and Slaughterhouse-Five came out under the Delacorte name on 31 March 1969, bound in blue cloth with a dust jacket.
Ownership changed hands several times. Doubleday bought Dell in 1976, Bertelsmann bought Doubleday in 1986 and Random House in 1998, and Random House joined Penguin in 2013, which brought Delacorte into Penguin Random House. Later hits include Diana Gabaldon's A Breath of Snow and Ashes, published on 27 September 2005, which opened at number one on the New York Times hardcover fiction list.
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
What to look for
Delacorte published American trade editions in cloth with dust jackets, so a Delacorte first printing is normally the true first edition of an American title. Dell itself was the paperback side of the business.
1960s to 1970s
First printings are marked by a "First printing" statement on the copyright page, sometimes joined to the year, as on Vonnegut's Between Time and Timbuktu (1972) and Breakfast of Champions (1973); Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) carries the plain statement.
1980s to 1990s
At some point Delacorte dropped the printing statement in favour of a number row on the copyright page.
From 2000
Recent Delacorte books carry a stated "First Edition" together with a number row; dealers describe a first printing as a stated first with a full number row, as on Karin Slaughter's Broken (2010).
How do I identify a Delacorte Press first edition?
Delacorte published American trade editions in cloth with dust jackets, so a Delacorte first printing is normally the true first edition of an American title. Dell itself was the paperback side of the business. 1960s to 1970s - First printings are marked by a "First printing" statement on the copyright page, sometimes joined to the year, as on Vonnegut's Between Time and Timbuktu (1972) and Breakf
How many Delacorte Press books does MyVolumes track?
We track 307 editions published by Delacorte Press, 190 of them first editions, across 303 books.
