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; the census is correct. 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 — confirmed, matching the census claim — issued after Grove's successful court challenge; it is a "first…. 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; the census is correct on this point, confirmed by Bauman (ABAA), biblio, and Wikipedia as a pointer. 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. CENSUS CLAIM CONTESTED: the assertion that the first US edition is "Grove 1961" is NOT…. 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.
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