2 Jean Rhys first editions are documented on this shelf, from Good Morning, Midnight (1939) to Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) across 2 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Jean Rhys 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.

Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Jean Rhys copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.

Good Morning, Midnight — 1939 · ConstableFirst edition published by Constable, London, 1939 (standard bibliographic reference Mellown A5a). Two bindings occur within the first printing: the earlier issue is in purple cloth; a later issue, bound from remaining sheets during the war years, is in green cloth and lacks endpapers (a blank leaf present at the rear only, none at the front). Spine lettered in a contrasting color; issued in a priced dust jacket…. Constable (London) 1939 is the true and only period first; the novel had no American edition until the Harper & Row (New York) 1970 revival that followed Rhys's rediscovery. The 1970 Harper US edition is a separate, much later book, not a co-first. The 1939 Constable printing was never reprinted, so there is no contemporary book-club issue. Do not conflate the later André Deutsch reset reissue (1960s) or the Harper & Row 1970 US edition — both 'first thus' — with the 1939 first.
Wide Sargasso Sea — 1966 · André DeutschFirst edition, first impression: André Deutsch, London, first impression October 1966. Bound in the publisher's red cloth with the spine lettered in gilt; dust wrapper designed by Eric Thomas, showing Antoinette Cosway on the front panel; the text carries Francis Wyndham's introduction. The decisive point is the copyright-page verso: a first impression reads 'First published 1966' with no reprint or impression…. True first is André Deutsch, London, 1966 (first impression October 1966) — the London claim is confirmed. The census date for the American edition is WRONG and is corrected here: the first American edition is W. W. Norton, New York, 1966, NOT 1967. Norton first printings are so stated on the copyright page and carry a jacket with art by Bill Logan; ABAA dealer descriptions consistently date the first American…. The commonest trap is the André Deutsch second impression of December 1966, which shares the 1966 title-page date and is separated only by the impression statement on the verso. No documented book-club issue of the Deutsch first was corroborated against two independent sources in this pass.

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