# Is "Anthem" by Ayn Rand a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Anthem by Ayn Rand (Cassell and Company, 1938) is identified by: The Cassell first is identified by "First Published 1938" on the copyright page, with no later-printing statement below it. Census claim confirmed.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The Cassell first is identified by "First Published 1938" on the copyright page, with no later-printing statement below it
- Duodecimo, 147 pages, bound in the publisher's mottled red and black cloth, top edge stained black, black endpapers; dealers cite Perinn A2a
- The printing was small — roughly 3,500 copies are reported — and jacketed copies are seldom seen
- Two dust-jacket states are recorded: one with the price present at the spine, and one lacking the price but with "Colonial Edition" printed on the lower front flap
- The trade's traditional ordering (priced state first) is disputed, because Colonial jackets were frequently printed ahead of domestic ones; treat jacket precedence here as unsettled rather than settled, and identify the book from the copyright page and binding
- Publisher imprint reads Cassell and Company
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Ayn Rand |
| Publisher | Cassell and Company |
| Year | 1938 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The Cassell first is identified by "First Published 1938" on the copyright page, with no later-printing statement below it |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The Cassell first is identified by "First Published 1938" on the copyright page, with no later-printing statement below it. Duodecimo, 147 pages, bound in the publisher's mottled red and black cloth, top edge stained black, black endpapers; dealers cite Perinn A2a. The printing was small — roughly 3,500 copies are reported — and jacketed copies are seldom seen. Two dust-jacket states are recorded: one with the price present at the spine, and one lacking the price but with "Colonial Edition" printed on the lower front flap. The trade's traditional ordering (priced state first) is disputed, because Colonial jackets were frequently printed ahead of domestic ones; treat jacket precedence here as unsettled rather than settled, and identify the book from the copyright page and binding.

## Is this the true first?
Census claim confirmed. The true first is Cassell and Company, London, 1938 — Anthem was refused American publication and appeared in Britain first. Both editions are collected, but they are not the same text. The first American edition is Pamphleteers, Inc., Los Angeles, 1946, issued in printed paper wrappers in a reported 2,000 copies with a new foreword by Rand; it prints a text she revised and cut by roughly 18 percent (about 19,190 words against the Cassell text's 23,484). The Cassell 1938 is the only edition carrying the original, unrevised text. The 1946 Pamphleteers is the first appearance of the revised text — a first thus and the American first, not the book's first edition.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented for the 1938 Cassell printing. The commonest confusion is the 1946 Pamphleteers wrappers issue being catalogued flatly as a "first edition": it is the first American edition of a revised text. An issue point recorded within the 1946 Pamphleteers printing is the address "725 Venice Boulevard" on the title page. All the later Signet and mass-market paperbacks descend from the 1946 revision, not from the Cassell text.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Anthem* by Ayn Rand a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/anthem
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.