# Is "A Sportsman's Sketches (Sketches from a Hunter's Album)" by Ivan Turgenev a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of A Sportsman's Sketches (Sketches from a Hunter's Album) by Ivan Turgenev (University Printing House, 1852) is identified by: True first is the Russian first book edition, 'Zapiski okhotnika,' two volumes, printed at the University Printing House (Universitetskaya Tipografiya), Moscow, 1852. True first equals the 1852 Russian first edition in two volumes.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- True first is the Russian first book edition, 'Zapiski okhotnika,' two volumes, printed at the University Printing House (Universitetskaya Tipografiya), Moscow, 1852
- It collects the hunting sketches first serialized in the journal 'Sovremennik' (The Contemporary) from 1847 to 1851, beginning with 'Khor and Kalinych' (January 1847)
- English-language appearances such as 'A Sportsman's Sketches' are later translations and are therefore 'first thus.'
- Publisher imprint reads University Printing House
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Ivan Turgenev |
| Publisher | University Printing House |
| Year | 1852 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | True first is the Russian first book edition, 'Zapiski okhotnika,' two volumes, printed at the University Printing House (Universitetskaya… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
True first is the Russian first book edition, 'Zapiski okhotnika,' two volumes, printed at the University Printing House (Universitetskaya Tipografiya), Moscow, 1852. It collects the hunting sketches first serialized in the journal 'Sovremennik' (The Contemporary) from 1847 to 1851, beginning with 'Khor and Kalinych' (January 1847). English-language appearances such as 'A Sportsman's Sketches' are later translations and are therefore 'first thus.'

## Is this the true first?
True first equals the 1852 Russian first edition in two volumes. The most collectible English appearance is Constance Garnett's two-volume Heinemann translation (1895), itself a 'first thus' in English.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
All English-language printings are translations and therefore 'first thus'; do not conflate any English edition with the 1852 Russian true first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *A Sportsman's Sketches (Sketches from a Hunter's Album)* by Ivan Turgenev a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/a-sportsmans-sketches-sketches-from-a-hunters-album
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.