Finnegans Wake

Faber (London) and Viking (New York) are simultaneous co-firsts, both published 4 May 1939 by design; neither is a second edition, and both are collected. The census claim that 'the London trade issue takes precedence with collectors' states a preference as a fact and is softened here. What is documented is that the Viking edition was photographically offset from proofs Faber supplied, so the Faber setting is the source of the text and the Faber issue is the one usually treated as the primary first; Christie's catalogues the Faber as the 'first regular English edition', distinguishing it from the signed limited issue. Best practice is to name the issue (Faber trade, Viking trade, or signed limited) rather than to call any one of them 'the first'.