Jorge Luis Borges First Editions

• Ficciones (Spanish first) — 1944 · Editorial Sur, Buenos AiresWorld true first. Issued 1944 as Ficciones (1935–1944) by Editorial Sur, Buenos Aires, in printed wrappers, comprising 'El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan' plus 'Artificios'. The 1956 Emecé edition added three stories to Artificios ('El fin', 'El Sur', and 'La secta del Fénix') and is a second, expanded state, not the true first. The 1944 Sur edition precedes all others; the commonly seen 1956 Emecé is expanded by three stories. Collectors distinguish the two carefully. The 1956 Emecé and later Emecé printings are expanded reissues, not the 1944 Sur first.
• Ficciones — 1962 · Grove Press, New YorkFirst complete English translation of Ficciones: Grove Press, New York, 1962, edited and introduced by Anthony Kerrigan, with translations by Kerrigan, Anthony Bonner, Alastair Reid, Helen Temple, and Ruthven Todd. Grove issued the first American edition simultaneously in two formats: the cloth hardcover in dust jacket (the preferred collecting issue) AND the Evergreen paperback (E-368), the latter also stating…. True first of the work is the Spanish Ficciones (Editorial Sur, Buenos Aires, 1944; expanded by Emecé, Buenos Aires, 1956). The 1962 Grove Press is the first English edition (US) and precedes the first UK edition (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1962), which followed and is commonly described as printed from the American sheets. The Grove appeared the same year as New Directions' Labyrinths (1962) — a different…. Do not treat the Evergreen paperback as automatically 'not a first': the first-printing Evergreen (E-368) is a simultaneous first issue; only LATER Evergreen printings and subsequent editions are excluded. Cloth in jacket is the preferred collecting format. The UK Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1962) followed the US Grove.
• Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings — 1962 · New Directions, New YorkFirst edition thus, a compilation original to English rather than a translation of a single Spanish book. New Directions, 1962: quarter black cloth with patterned paper-covered boards, frontispiece portrait, edited by Donald A. Yates and James E. Irby with a preface by André Maurois. The hardcover in dust jacket is the collectible first issue; New Directions also issued the title as a paperbook (NDP186) in the…. First-thus: this anthology has no single Spanish-language counterpart, so the 1962 New Directions edition is itself the true first of this collection. It and Grove's Ficciones (also 1962) jointly introduced Borges to English-language readers. Kept in print for decades as a paperbook; later printings carry the augmented (post-1964) text and updated copyright pages. The simultaneous paperbook is not the hardcover first.
• Dreamtigers — 1964 · University of Texas PressUniversity of Texas Press (Austin) 1964 first edition, first printing; translated by Mildred Boyer and Harold Morland, with an introduction by Miguel Enguidanos and woodcuts by Antonio Frasconi. Bound in publisher's black cloth with the spine lettered in bronze, over pictorial (decorated) endpapers; Frasconi's double-page tiger woodcut in black and brown serves as the frontispiece, with a further woodcut tiger…. First English-language edition of El hacedor (Buenos Aires, Emece, 1960), and the first Texas printing. The title Dreamtigers was adopted because the literal English of the Spanish title was deemed unsuitable. No book-club edition; later University of Texas paperback printings in the Texas Pan-American Series follow. Confirm the black cloth with bronze spine lettering and the Frasconi woodcuts to distinguish the 1964 first from later paperback issues.
• Other Inquisitions 1937–1952 — 1964 · University of Texas PressUniversity of Texas Press, Austin, 1964, first American edition and first printing; translated by Ruth L. C. Simms with an introduction by James E. Irby. Approximately 205 pages, gathering the thirty-nine essays of Otras inquisiciones. Bound in pale gray cloth, the spine stamped in silver and dark gray, issued in a dust jacket. First English-language edition of the essay collection Otras inquisiciones (Buenos Aires, 1952); the University of Texas Press 1964 printing is the true first in English. No significant book-club edition noted; later printings and the softcover reissue are distinct from the 1964 cloth first.
• A Personal Anthology — 1967 · Grove PressGrove Press, New York, 1967; first English-language edition, edited with a foreword by Anthony Kerrigan. Octavo, bound in grey cloth lettered in black on the spine, and issued in the original pictorial dust jacket which should retain the printed price on the front flap. First English-language edition of Antología personal (Buenos Aires, 1961). Grove's 1967 printing has precedence over the Jonathan Cape UK edition (1967/1968). The Grove Evergreen paperback is a later reprint, distinguished from the hardcover first by its wrappers and later printing data.
• The Book of Imaginary Beings — 1969 · E.P. DuttonFirst E.P. Dutton edition, New York, 1969. Revised, enlarged, and translated into English by Norman Thomas di Giovanni in collaboration with Borges (with Margarita Guerrero as co-author of the original). Red cloth with gilt spine lettering. This is the first English-language edition, newly revised and expanded by Borges from the Spanish El libro de los seres imaginarios. The UK edition follows in 1970. Confirm a true first by the 1969 date and absence of later-printing indicators; do not rely on an assumed blind-stamp, which is not a documented point for this title.
• The Aleph and Other Stories 1933–1969 — 1970 · E. P. Dutton, New YorkFirst edition thus in English; cloth in dust jacket, 1970, the first American edition. Collects twenty stories (eleven not previously in book form in English) plus Borges's commentaries and an 'Autobiographical Essay' written for this volume directly in English with di Giovanni. This English compilation does not correspond exactly to the Spanish El Aleph (1949). First-thus: the di Giovanni/Borges English Aleph is an original selection. The true first of the title story's home collection is the Spanish El Aleph (Editorial Losada, Buenos Aires, 1949). A UK edition (Cape, 1971) followed the US Dutton. Later Dutton and paperback printings (e.g., Bantam, 1971) and the UK Cape are not the US cloth first.
• A Universal History of Infamy — 1972 · E. P. Dutton, New YorkFirst edition in English, cloth in dust jacket, 1972, translated by Norman Thomas di Giovanni. Renders the Spanish Historia universal de la infamia; the di Giovanni text follows Borges's 1954 revised Spanish version, so it includes material added after the 1935 original. True first of the work is the Spanish Historia universal de la infamia (Editorial Tor, Buenos Aires, 1935), revised by Borges in 1954. The 1972 Dutton is the first English edition; UK Allen Lane/Penguin followed. Penguin and later paperbacks are reprints, not the Dutton cloth first.
• Doctor Brodie's Report — 1972 · E.P. DuttonFirst American edition, E.P. Dutton & Co., New York, 1972, ISBN 9780525093824, 128 pp. Translated by Norman Thomas di Giovanni in collaboration with the author. Bound in quarter black cloth over burnt-orange cloth boards with gilt lettering on the spine; the first-issue dust jacket carries the printed price on the front flap (present and unclipped on a true first-issue jacket). Review copies were issued with a…. The Dutton 1972 American edition is the true first English-language edition of El informe de Brodie (1970). The first British edition (Allen Lane) did not appear until 1974, so US Dutton has clear precedence; there is no 1972 UK contender. Confirm a true first by the 1972 Dutton first-printing state, the quarter-black-cloth-over-burnt-orange binding with gilt spine, and the priced first-issue jacket; a blind-stamp is not a documented issue point for this title.
• Selected Poems 1923–1967 — 1972 · Delacorte Press / Seymour LawrenceFirst American edition, a bilingual (Spanish/English) text, Delacorte Press – A Seymour Lawrence Book, 1972. Edited, with an introduction and notes, by Norman Thomas di Giovanni; English translations by several hands including W. S. Merwin, John Updike, and Richard Wilbur. First major English-language selected poems of Borges; a first-thus compilation. Published under a 1971 copyright with the trade first edition appearing in early 1972. No notable book-club edition; confirm the Delacorte/Seymour Lawrence trade first by the imprint and first-printing state.
• In Praise of Darkness — 1974 · E.P. DuttonFirst American edition and first printing, E.P. Dutton, New York, 1974. Bilingual (Spanish/English) edition translated by Norman Thomas di Giovanni in collaboration with the author (one poem translated by John Updike). First English-language edition of Elogio de la sombra (1969), issued as a parallel-text bilingual edition. No notable book-club edition; confirm by the 1974 date and first-printing state.
• The Book of Sand — 1977 · E.P. DuttonFirst American edition, E.P. Dutton, New York, 1977, translated by Norman Thomas di Giovanni, 125 pages including Borges's Afterword. Bound in cream quarter cloth over brown papered boards with the spine lettered in gilt. The first-issue glossy brown dust jacket should retain its printed price on the front flap when unclipped. The Dutton 1977 American edition is the true first English-language edition of El libro de arena (1975). The first British edition (Allen Lane) did not appear until 1979, so US Dutton has clear precedence. Confirm a true first by the 1977 date and first-printing state; a blind-stamp is not a documented issue point for this title, and the unclipped priced jacket is the key first-issue tell.
• Collected Fictions — 1998 · VikingFirst edition, Viking (Penguin Putnam), New York, 1998, translated by Andrew Hurley. ISBN 0-670-84970-7. A true first printing carries the publisher's full descending number line reading down to 1 with no stated later printing. First-thus: the first complete one-volume English gathering of Borges's fiction in the Andrew Hurley translation. This is not the first appearance of the individual stories, several of which appeared earlier in other translations. No book-club edition; later Penguin trade-paperback reprints exist and are not the Viking first.

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