Early arrival taking in new books? Outstanding (10)

I believe the answer is:

preeminent

'outstanding' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'early arrival taking in new books?' is the wordplay.
'early arrival' becomes 'preemie' (I've seen this in another clue).
'taking in' is an insertion indicator.
'new' becomes 'n' (common abbreviation eg NT for New Testament).
'books?' becomes 'NT' (abbreviation for New Testament).
'preemie' enclosing 'n' is 'preemine'.
'preemine'+'nt'='PREEMINENT'

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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