# Is "An Unfortunate Woman: A Journey" by Richard Brautigan a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of An Unfortunate Woman: A Journey by Richard Brautigan (St. Martin's Press, 2000) is identified by: First English-language edition, first printing: a black-cloth octavo lettered in silver, roughly 170 pages, issued in a dust jacket with the printed price present to the flap; the copyright-page number line ends in 1. The work first appeared not in English but in French translation, as 'Cahier d'un Retour de Troie,' published by Christian Bourgois in 1994, six years before any English-language printing.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First English-language edition, first printing: a black-cloth octavo lettered in silver, roughly 170 pages, issued in a dust jacket with the printed price present to the flap; the copyright-page number line ends in 1
- Brautigan's tenth and final novel, written in 1982 and published posthumously
- Publisher imprint reads St. Martin's Press
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Richard Brautigan |
| Publisher | St. Martin's Press |
| Year | 2000 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First English-language edition, first printing: a black-cloth octavo lettered in silver, roughly 170 pages, issued in a dust jacket with… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First English-language edition, first printing: a black-cloth octavo lettered in silver, roughly 170 pages, issued in a dust jacket with the printed price present to the flap; the copyright-page number line ends in 1. Brautigan's tenth and final novel, written in 1982 and published posthumously.

## Is this the true first?
The work first appeared not in English but in French translation, as 'Cahier d'un Retour de Troie,' published by Christian Bourgois in 1994, six years before any English-language printing. The true first in English is the 2000 St. Martin's Press edition, published in tandem with Ianthe Brautigan's memoir You Can't Catch Death.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
None notable for the English first; be aware the 1994 French Bourgois translation is the overall first appearance of the text in print.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *An Unfortunate Woman: A Journey* by Richard Brautigan a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/an-unfortunate-woman-a-journey
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.