# Is "The Baron in the Trees" by Italo Calvino a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino (Random House, 1959) is identified by: Translated from the Italian by Archibald Colquhoun. First English translation of Il barone rampante (Einaudi, 1957).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Translated from the Italian by Archibald Colquhoun
- The US Random House first edition states First Printing on the copyright page
- It is an octavo of 217 pages, bound in army-green cloth boards stamped with wavy lines in green, red and gilt, and carries a mustard-yellow top stain
- The first-issue dust jacket should retain the printed price on the front flap; a UK Collins edition also appeared in 1959
- Publisher imprint reads Random House
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Italo Calvino |
| Publisher | Random House |
| Year | 1959 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Translated from the Italian by Archibald Colquhoun |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
Translated from the Italian by Archibald Colquhoun. The US Random House first edition states First Printing on the copyright page. It is an octavo of 217 pages, bound in army-green cloth boards stamped with wavy lines in green, red and gilt, and carries a mustard-yellow top stain. The first-issue dust jacket should retain the printed price on the front flap; a UK Collins edition also appeared in 1959.

## Is this the true first?
First English translation of Il barone rampante (Einaudi, 1957). Both the US Random House and UK Collins editions are dated 1959 and appear essentially concurrent; precedence between them is not firmly established, so neither should be asserted as the sole true first without a copy-in-hand comparison.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
A Random House book-club issue exists; it is identified by the absence of a printed price on the jacket and a blind-embossed dot to the rear board, not by any stamp on the true first, which states First Printing.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Baron in the Trees* by Italo Calvino a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-baron-in-the-trees
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.