5 George Bernard Shaw first editions are documented on this shelf, from Widowers' Houses (1893) to Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy (1903) across 4 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that George Bernard Shaw title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.
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- Widowers' Houses — 1893 · Henry & Co.First edition, octavo, collating xix, [5], 126, [2] pp. (the final leaves list other titles in "The Independent Theatre Series" and "Works by the same author"), deckle-edged. Title page reads "Widowers' Houses. A Comedy. First Acted at the Independent Theatre in London," issued as Number One of the Independent Theatre Series edited by J. T. Grein. Bound in cloth, most commonly recorded in dark olive gilt-lettered…. When Henry & Co. went out of business in December 1897 they turned over roughly 194 unbound sets of first-edition sheets to Shaw, who arranged independently to have them bound (reportedly via Sotheran & Co., in purple cloth); these are the same 1893 setting of type in a different binding, not a later reprint, so a cloth binding that doesn't match the standard trade cloth does not by itself indicate a later edition.
- Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant — 1898 · Grant RichardsTwo volumes, octavo, original green cloth, top edges gilt, each volume with a photogravure portrait frontispiece of Shaw. Volume I ("Plays Unpleasant") contains Widowers' Houses, The Philanderer, and Mrs Warren's Profession; Volume II ("Plays Pleasant") contains Candida, Arms and the Man, The Man of Destiny, and You Never Can Tell. This collection gave several of these plays their first appearance in print,…. Herbert S. Stone & Co. of Chicago issued a simultaneous American edition in April 1898 with the same copyright date on both volumes' title pages; the Grant Richards London printing is treated as the primary first edition, with the Stone Chicago printing as the first American edition.
- The Perfect Wagnerite — 1898 · Grant RichardsFirst edition, small octavo, 140 pp., titled "The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring" on the title page. Bound in green cloth-covered boards with the title printed on a pasted paper label on the spine rather than stamped in gilt. Shaw wrote the commentary as a guide for admirers of Wagner's Ring cycle who found the mythological plot difficult to follow, treating the operas' political and….
- Three Plays for Puritans — 1901 · Grant Richards, LondonFirst edition: Grant Richards, London, January 1901, in an issue of 2,500 copies, bound in green cloth (crown 8vo, published at the printed price); the volume gathers 'The Devil's Disciple,' 'Caesar and Cleopatra,' and 'Captain Brassbound's Conversion' with Shaw's long three-part preface. The American issue (Herbert S. Stone & Co., Chicago and New York, 1901) followed the same year. Beyond the 1901 Grant Richards…. London Grant Richards (1901) is the accepted true first; the Chicago/New York Herbert S. Stone issue appeared the same year and followed (the Gale/DLB reference lists 'London: Richards, 1901' ahead of 'Stone, 1901'). Precedence over the Stone issue by a specific interval is not documented, but the London edition is conventionally regarded as first. Later Grant Richards and Constable reprints, and the American Stone printings (e.g., a 1904 Stone issue exists), follow; no book-club issue documented for the 1901 first.
- Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy — 1903 · Archibald Constable & Co., WestminsterFirst printing carries no printing or issue statement on the title-page verso. Copies bearing a "thousand" statement on the title-page verso (e.g. "Fifth Thousand") are later printings within the same 1903 setting, and that statement is the single most reliable tell for separating a first printing from the reprints Constable ran through the year. Collation is xxxvii, 244 pp., issued in publisher's green (often…. The London/Westminster edition (Archibald Constable & Co., 1903) is the true first; both editions are collected. The first American edition was published by Brentano's, New York, in May 1904 and follows the English edition by roughly nine months, so no US precedence trap exists here — the census claim is correct as stated. Later Constable collected-set appearances (Standard Edition and subsequent series) are…. No book-club issue documented for the 1903 edition. Reprint tells: any "thousand" statement on the title-page verso; Brentano's New York printings of 1904 and later; and appearances within Constable's collected/Standard Edition sets, all of which post-date the first.
More Poetry, Beat & Drama shelves: Gregory Corso, Gwendolyn Brooks, Harold Pinter, Hart Crane, Henrik Ibsen, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
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