F. Scott Fitzgerald First Editions

• Flappers and Philosophers — 1920 · Charles Scribner's Sons, New YorkFirst printing (Bruccoli A6.1.a) has the Scribner seal and reads 'Published September, 1920' on the copyright page. Bound in dark green cloth lettered in gilt on the spine with a blind-stamped front board. First-issue dust jacket with no later-printing notices. Fitzgerald's second book and first story collection; true US first edition. The UK Collins edition (1922) is a separate first thus. No book-club edition. Later printings carry subsequent month or reprinting notices on the copyright page.
• This Side of Paradise — 1920 · Charles Scribner's Sons, New YorkFirst printing (Bruccoli A5.1.a) has the Scribner seal and reads 'Published April, 1920' on the copyright page, with no later reprinting statements. Bound in dark green cloth lettered in gilt on the spine with blind-stamped lettering on the front board. First-issue dust jacket carries no printing statement and shows only the publisher's description on the front flap. Fitzgerald's first book; true US first edition. The UK Collins edition (1921) is a separate first thus, not a precedence concern. No book-club edition. Later printings add reprinting statements (for example 'Reprinted' lines and later month notices) below the publication line.
• Tales of the Jazz Age — 1922 · Charles Scribner's Sons, New YorkFirst printing has 'Published September, 1922' on the copyright page with the Scribner's seal. Bound in dark green cloth, lettered in gilt on the spine and front cover. First-issue dust jacket carries the John Held Jr. illustration. Scarce in the original jacket. True US first. The Collins (London) edition of 1923 is a later first thus. No book-club edition. Later printings carry later dates on the copyright page.
• The Beautiful and Damned — 1922 · Charles Scribner's Sons, New YorkFirst printing has 'Published March, 1922' on the copyright page with the Scribner's seal. Bound in green cloth lettered in gilt on the spine. First-issue dust jacket carries the illustration by W. E. Hill, whose figures of Anthony and Gloria were drawn to resemble Scott and Zelda. Far scarcer in the original jacket. True US first, Fitzgerald's second novel. The Collins (London) edition is a later first thus. No book-club edition. Later printings carry later dates on the copyright page rather than the March 1922 statement.
• The Vegetable, or From President to Postman — 1923 · Charles Scribner's Sons, New YorkThe copyright page of the first printing reads "Published April, 1923" beneath the Scribner seal. This is pre-1930 Scribner practice — the firm had not yet adopted the "A" device — so there is no edition statement and no number line to look for, and the dated publication line under the seal is the whole test. Bound in dark green cloth, the spine lettered in gilt and the upper board lettered in blind, with fore-…. A US-only true first: Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, April 1923. No contemporaneous British edition was published, so there is no UK/US precedence question — this is one of the few Fitzgerald 'A' items with a single claimant. It is Fitzgerald's only published play, and the book precedes the play's stage life (the Atlantic City tryout came in November 1923), so the book text is the first appearance. Modern…. No book-club issue is documented in the sources consulted — the play failed commercially and the sources record only the Scribner printing of 7,650 copies, though the Bruccoli "A10.1.a" designation formally leaves room for later printings the sources did not describe. The practical reprint tell is the absence of the "Published April, 1923" line under the Scribner seal on the copyright page. Because the jacket is….
• The Great Gatsby — 1925 · Charles Scribner's SonsFirst printing (Charles Scribner's Sons, April 1925). The copyright page shows the Scribner's Press seal (colophon) and the line 'Published April, 1925' — there is NO letter 'A' (Scribner's did not use the 'A' first-printing device until 1930, so an 'A' is a red flag for a later printing). The first printing is identified by uncorrected text points, all later corrected: p.60 line 16 'chatter' (later reset to…. US Scribner's (April 1925) is the true first; the UK Chatto & Windus edition (1926) is collected but follows a year later and is a distant second. The Francis Cugat 'Celestial Eyes' dust jacket is the paramount point: its earliest state has 'jay Gatsby' with a lowercase 'j' in the blurb on the REAR panel (many copies were hand-corrected to a capital 'J' in ink — a second state; a still-later state adds review…. No legitimate book-club edition of the 1925 first exists; later Scribner's printings silently correct the text points. The most common trap is a FACSIMILE or 'married' dust jacket placed on a first- or later-printing book, since the jacket carries most of the value. Later reprints — such as the Modern Library and the UK Grey Walls Press editions — are sometimes offered as the 1925 first; verify by the uncorrected….
• All the Sad Young Men — 1926 · Charles Scribner's Sons, New YorkFirst printing has 'Published February, 1926' on the copyright page with the Scribner's seal. Bound in green cloth with the title in blind on the upper board and stamped in gilt on the spine. The collecting point for the first printing is undamaged type on pages 38, 90, and 248. The dust jacket is brown with a cover image by Cleon printed in green and black. Contains 'The Rich Boy' and 'Winter Dreams,' among others. True US first. No separate UK first thus of particular note for this title. No book-club edition. Later printings show battered/damaged type on pages 38, 90, and 248.
• Tender Is the Night — 1934 · Charles Scribner's SonsThe first printing carries the Scribner's capital 'A' together with the publisher's seal on the copyright page beneath the 1934 imprint. The book was published April 12, 1934, after serialization in Scribner's Magazine in four installments (January through April 1934). Bound in publisher's dark green cloth (linen-grain), the front board blind-stamped and the spine lettered in gilt. The first-issue dust jacket…. The US Scribner's 1934 'A' first is the true first. There is no signed or limited trade issue; the jacketed 'A' first is the landmark, and the original first-issue jacket with the Eliot/Mencken/Rosenfeld blurbs is the desirable state. Later Scribner's printings drop the 'A' and the seal from the copyright page; book-club copies are blind-stamped, lack the 'A' and seal, and do not carry the priced first-issue jacket.
• Taps at Reveille — 1935 · Charles Scribner's Sons, New YorkFirst printing has the Scribner's 'A' and seal on the copyright page. The first state has the original uncancelled leaves at pages 349-352 in the story 'One Interne,' reading 'catch it' on page 351. The second state replaces these as a cancel leaf carrying three revisions. Bound in green cloth. True US first; Fitzgerald's last collection published in his lifetime. No book-club edition. The 'A' is dropped on later printings.
• The Last Tycoon — 1941 · Charles Scribner's Sons, New YorkFirst printing has the 'A' and the Scribner's seal on the copyright page. Posthumous, edited with an introduction by Edmund Wilson, and issued together with 'The Great Gatsby' and selected stories. Bound in blue cloth stamped in gilt on the front board and spine, with a red top-stain. True US first, preceding the UK Grey Walls Press edition of 1949. No book-club edition for the first printing; reprints lack the 'A.'.
• The Crack-Up — 1945 · New Directions, New YorkThe first edition, first issue is identified by the two-colour title page: lines 3-12 and the publisher's device are printed in red-brown (described by some dealers as brick red), with the remainder in black. The later issue of the same first edition has the title page printed in black only, and is the trap most often offered as a plain 'first edition' — the colour of the title page, not the copyright page, does…. US-only precedence: New Directions, New York, 1945, edited by Edmund Wilson, is the true first and the sole edition collected as such — the census claim is correct. No British edition preceded or competed with it; UK hardcover publication followed more than a decade later (The Bodley Head, reported 1958), and that later British issue is a reprint, not a co-first. The 'first thus' traps are the New Directions…. No book-club issue is documented for this title in the sources consulted. The material reprint tell is the black-only title page marking the later issue of the first edition; New Directions kept the book in print, so later printings and the paperbook are common and are not firsts.

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