4 Henry Miller first editions are documented on this shelf, from Tropic of Cancer (1934) to The Colossus of Maroussi (1941) across 3 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Henry Miller title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.
Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Henry Miller copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- Tropic of Cancer — 1934 · Obelisk PressTRUE first is the Obelisk Press (Paris, 1934) issue in printed wrappers with the bank wraparound band; the US edition was banned until Grove Press published it in 1961. First-issue Obelisk has the original price on the wrapper and the preface by Anaïs Nin. Obelisk Press (Paris, 1934) is the true world first; the Grove Press (US, 1961) edition is the first American edition — a notable 'first thus' tied to the obscenity trial, but not the true first. Grove Press first American states its own printing; later Obelisk and Grove reprints carry printing notices. Many later Paris reprints in similar wrappers exist — the bank band and 1934 imprint distinguish the true first.
- Black Spring — 1936 · The Obelisk PressTrue first is the Paris Obelisk Press printing, 1936, from Obelisk's address at 338 Rue Saint-Honoré, Paris — one of 1,000 copies. Issued in original pictorial self-wrappers (soft covers), uncut and often partially unopened, with a deckle-edged text block. The pictorial front panel was designed by M. J. Kahane — Maurice Kahane, son of Obelisk's founder Jack Kahane, later known as Maurice Girodias of the Olympia…. TRUE FIRST IS PARIS — Obelisk Press, 1936, in wrappers. Miller wrote in English, so the Paris edition is the true first and the first in the original language; it was banned across the English-speaking world on publication. The first American edition is Grove Press, New York, 1963, issued after Grove's successful court challenge; it is a "first American edition, first printing", not a first edition. Both the…. No book-club issue is documented for the Paris first. The reprint tell is the Grove Press 1963 first American edition: half black boards over striated grey boards, gilt spine lettering with the author's signature in gilt, 243 pages — a hardcover, where the true first is a wrappered book. Black Spring was never issued in publisher's cloth in Paris, so a cloth-bound copy is either the Grove edition or a later….
- Tropic of Capricorn — 1939 · The Obelisk PressTrue first is the Paris Obelisk Press printing, published February 1939 — the copyright page carries that February 1939 publication statement. Issued in original stiff paper wrappers, red and white, lettered in black, with a capricorn device and a sun ornament in white and a black obelisk (the Obelisk Press device) on the front panel; octavo, uncut. The original price is printed on the backstrip and on the front…. TRUE FIRST IS PARIS — Obelisk Press, 1939, in wrappers (Bauman, ABAA; biblio). Miller wrote in English, so the Paris edition is both the true first and the first in the original language; it was banned in the US and UK and circulated by smuggling. The first US edition, often given as "Grove 1961," is not confirmed and the sources conflict. Grove Press copies are dated 1961 and several ABAA dealers catalogue them…. No book-club issue is documented. The reprint tells are the Grove Press New York hardcover (green cloth in jacket, c. 346-348 pp., catalogued as the "First Authorized U.S. Edition" — authorised, and therefore by definition not the first) and the Grove paperback that followed. Any copy bearing a Grove imprint, a New York place of publication, or an ISBN is not the Paris first. The Paris first was issued only in….
- The Colossus of Maroussi — 1941 · The Colt PressThe true first was issued by The Colt Press, San Francisco, 1941, in two simultaneous states catalogued in Shifreen & Jackson: A26(a), the signed limited issue of 100 copies, and A26(b), the trade issue. Octavo, [8],244pp. The LIMITED issue (A26a) is bound in decorated/floral paper-covered boards over a cloth spine with a printed paper spine label, is signed by Miller on the third blank leaf, has the side-edges…. US Colt Press 1941 precedes the first UK/English edition, William Heinemann via Secker & Warburg, London, 1942 (234,[2]pp, blue cloth). Both the A26a limited and A26b trade are 1941 Colt Press firsts from the same setting; the signed limited of 100 is the more desirable primary issue. The US edition is the collected true first. No contemporaneous US book club for this small fine-press title; later reprints and the New Directions issues are clearly later and not confusable with the Colt Press sheets. A facsimile dust jacket is sometimes supplied to jacketless copies and should be disclosed as such.
More Literary Fiction (US) & Award Winners shelves: Herman Melville, Herman Wouk, Hermann Hesse, Hilary Mantel, Hunter S. Thompson, Iain Banks.
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