First mention of D&D actually being in print...?

[harami]

Great input. Thanks, y'all. :)

I'd rather been hoping that the Courier review was late-74, so that's excellent to have as confirmation. Ditto on (the lack of such in) the Lowry's Guidons, since that was a hole here and I wasn't sure how far the focus of that 'zine might permit D&D to at least be noted in passing.
*nods* re. those Wargamer's Digests (+ nice snag, Gro') - those do tally with other sightings of C&R as "new" very early in 74 but no mention of D&D.

I'm still going with March or Easter (mid-April) 74 as an earliest public release date for D&D pending further primary evidence. Please someone shoot that down if you can. ^^
*
As to "imminent publication", TSR played that many times in 75/76, too, to the point I get the feeling the likes of Space Gamer might even have given a deliberate "miss" on reviews (e.g. on MA) owing to product lateness. (Pity help the wiki writers who casually glance inside the cover and insist that one was prior to Starfaring on the basis of a foreward date *jk*).

=
[edit] @ Stephen: the second, yes, but hopefully not far off the first, too, unless EGG was deliberately holding back on sending copies of the "finished product" to Dave Arneson & co. Slightly different colors on the covers and marginally larger in format (would be even more difficult to box without bending in two!) - still not 100% sure on those points being an adequate distinction for a separate (first) run or whether those were mixed in together for actual release, but that did tally with one of Mike/IO's sets and another on eBay.
This set's of no value, anyhow, since it's well used. The additional Blackmoor monster annotations are still fun, though. :)