Roberto Bolaño First Editions

• By Night in Chile — 2003 · New Directions, New YorkFirst English edition, New Directions, 2003, translated by Chris Andrews. This was the first of Bolano's books to be published in English. Issued as a New Directions paperbook with a clothbound issue also produced; first printing per the New Directions copyright page. True first is the Spanish Nocturno de Chile (Editorial Anagrama, Barcelona, 2000). The 2003 New Directions is the first edition in English and the first Bolano title in English, a key point for collectors building a Bolano-in-English run. No book-club issue of note; later New Directions printings are reprints, identified by the copyright-page printing statement.
• Distant Star — 2004 · New Directions, New YorkFirst US edition in English, New Directions, New York, 2004, translated by Chris Andrews (Estrella distante). Issued as a New Directions Paperbook original softcover only, not in a hardcover trade binding; first printing is identified by the copyright-page printing statement (a complete descending number line ending in 1, with no added impression or later-printing line). Perfect-bound pictorial wrappers with the…. The true first is the Spanish Estrella distante (Editorial Anagrama, Barcelona, 'Narrativas hispánicas' series, October 1996). In English, the 2004 New Directions Paperbook is the first US edition; a Harvill Press UK edition also appeared in 2004, so English-language precedence between the two is close and worth verifying rather than asserting outright. No book-club issue. Later New Directions printings are reprints identified by the advanced printing statement on the copyright page; a second or later impression line is the reprint tell.
• Amulet — 2006 · New DirectionsNew Directions 2006, first English-language edition, translated by Chris Andrews. Issued in quarter grey cloth over blue paper-covered boards with blue spine lettering and blue endpapers, in a dust jacket carrying the printed price. First English edition of Amuleto (Spanish, 1999); the New Directions hardcover is the first American edition, first printing. The UK Picador edition followed in 2009. No notable book club edition.
• Last Evenings on Earth — 2006 · New DirectionsNew Directions, 2006, first English-language edition, translated by Chris Andrews; a hardcover original of roughly 184 pages issued in a small first print run. The first printing is identified by a complete descending number line on the copyright page with the numeral 1 present and no statement of a later printing; the dust jacket should retain its printed price on the flap (unclipped on an as-issued copy). A…. The New Directions hardcover is the priority issue and the first English-language collection of Bolaño's short fiction, gathering fourteen stories drawn from the Spanish collections Llamadas telefónicas (1997) and Putas asesinas (2001). It was Bolaño's first US hardcover, and the hardcover precedes the paperback issue. No notable book club edition; the principal later state is the softcover New Directions Paperbook reissue, distinguished by its separate ISBN and wrapper.
• The Savage Detectives — 2007 · Farrar, Straus and GirouxFirst English-language edition: Farrar, Straus and Giroux hardcover, 2007, translated by Natasha Wimmer, published April 2007. First printing states 'First edition, 2007' on the copyright page with a complete number line (1 through 10); tan cloth-covered boards, 577 pages, jacket priced on the front flap. FSG 2007 is the first English-language edition; the Spanish 'Los detectives salvajes' (Anagrama, 1998) is the true first in any language. The UK Picador edition is later. No book-club edition; later printings are told by the number line no longer running to 1. The 1998 Anagrama Spanish edition is the absolute true first.
• 2666 — 2008 · Farrar, Straus and GirouxEnglish true first is the FSG 2008 one-volume hardcover, translated by Natasha Wimmer, with a complete number line including the numeral 1 indicating first printing. A separate three-volume paperback set in a pictorial slipcase was issued simultaneously and is a distinct first-printing state with a smaller print run; both states are correctly described. FSG 2008 is the first English edition. The Spanish 'monumental' edition (Anagrama, Barcelona, 2004) is the true first in any language. The single-volume hardcover and the three-volume boxed paperback are distinct first-edition states issued together. No book-club edition. Distinguish the single-volume hardcover first from the simultaneous three-volume paperback boxed set, both first printings. The 2004 Anagrama Spanish edition is the absolute true first.
• Nazi Literature in the Americas — 2008 · New DirectionsNew Directions, New York, 2008 (published February), first English-language edition; translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews. Copyright page carries the first-printing statement with a descending number line. Issued as a hardcover original only, with no simultaneous softcover of the first printing, in a comparatively small print run that sold out; the hardcover in its priced dust jacket is the priority…. First English edition of La literatura nazi en América (Anagrama, Spanish, 1996); this New Directions hardcover is the first appearance of the text in English and in the United States. Shortlisted for the 2008 Best Translated Book Award. A later New Directions paperback is a separate, subsequent issue. No notable book club edition. Later printings and the trade paperback drop the hardcover first-printing point on the copyright page.
• The Romantic Dogs — 2008 · New DirectionsNew Directions, 2008, first English-language edition (published November 2008); a softcover original — issued only as a New Directions paperback (ISBN 9780811218016), with no simultaneous hardcover or clothbound state. Bilingual, with the Spanish text on the left-hand page and Laura Healy's English translation en face; gathers 43 poems written between roughly 1980 and 1998. A first printing carries the New…. First English-language appearance of the poetry collection Los perros románticos (Spanish 1994, expanded 2000); Bolaño's first book of poetry in English. Because the New Directions first was a paperback original, there is no hardcover first-issue point to seek. No book club edition; distinguish the 2008 first paperback from later New Directions reprintings of the same ISBN by the absence of added printing markings.
• Antwerp — 2010 · New DirectionsNew Directions 2010, first English-language edition; translated by Natasha Wimmer (translation copyright 2010). The first edition is a pocket-sized black hardback with a boldly stamped cover, bearing the New Directions imprint on the first printing. Text comprises 56 short fragments. First English-language edition of the novella 'Amberes' (written 1980, first published in Spanish in 2002, the year before the author's death). A New Directions Pearls paperback followed. No book club edition.
• Monsieur Pain — 2010 · New DirectionsNew Directions (New York) 2010, first English-language edition, issued as a hardcover with dust jacket; translated by Chris Andrews. The first printing bears the New Directions imprint and the copyright statement of first publication in this translation in 2010. First English-language edition of the novel published in Spanish as Monsieur Pain (1999), which had originally been issued in 1993 by the City Council of Toledo as La senda de los elefantes; a New Directions paperback followed the 2010 hardcover. No book club edition.
• The Insufferable Gaucho — 2010 · New DirectionsNew Directions (New York) 2010, first English-language edition, issued as a hardcover original with dust jacket; ISBN 0811217167 / 9780811217163; translated by Chris Andrews. The first printing bears the New Directions imprint and carries a full number line ending in 1; the hardcover had a small print run and is scarce. First English-language edition of El gaucho insufrible (Spanish 2003), a collection of five stories and two essays. No book club edition; a New Directions paperback followed the hardcover, so confirm the hardcover binding and full number line for the first.
• The Return — 2010 · New DirectionsNew Directions, 2010, first English-language edition of this story collection, translated by Chris Andrews. Issued as a hardcover original; the first printing bears the New Directions imprint and a complete number line running 1 to 10 (ending in 1) on the copyright page. First English-language edition. The thirteen stories are drawn from Bolaño's Spanish collections Llamadas telefónicas (1997) and Putas asesinas (2001) — specifically those not previously gathered in Last Evenings on Earth. The original note citing only Putas asesinas is imprecise. This was a hardcover original; the paperback followed later. No book club edition; later printings are identified by the shortened number line on the copyright page.
• Between Parentheses — 2011 · New DirectionsFirst English-language edition, New Directions 2011, translated by Natasha Wimmer and edited by Ignacio Echevarria. Hardcover, ISBN 9780811218146. Collects the nonfiction essays, articles, and speeches from 1998 to 2003. The Spanish original, Entre parentesis, is the true first; New Directions issued the first English-language edition in 2011. No book club edition.
• The Third Reich — 2011 · Farrar, Straus and GirouxFirst American edition, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, published November 2011, translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer. Hardcover, ISBN 9780374275624. A true first prints the full number line ending in 1 on the copyright page, with the FSG imprint statement present. The original dust jacket carries the printed price on the front flap and should not be substituted or clipped for a first-state copy. The Spanish original, El Tercer Reich (posthumous, Anagrama, 2010), is the true first edition of the text. FSG issued the first US English-language edition in November 2011. In the UK, Picador released a paperback in 2011 and a hardcover, issued in slipcase, in 2012; the FSG hardcover therefore holds precedence as the first English hardcover. No book club edition. Later printings alter the number line so it no longer ends in 1; verify the full line on the copyright page rather than relying on the jacket.
• Tres — 2011 · New DirectionsNew Directions, 2011, first English-language edition; a bilingual Spanish/English volume of 174 pages with the original Spanish on the versos and Laura Healy's translation on the rectos, in three sections ('Prose from Autumn in Gerona,' 'The Neochileans,' 'A Stroll Through Literature'). Issued as a hardcover; the first printing bears the New Directions imprint and a complete number line ending in 1 on the…. First English-language edition of the poetry collection Tres (Spanish 2000), published September 2011 as a hardcover original. No book club edition; later printings are identified by the shortened number line on the copyright page.
• The Secret of Evil — 2012 · New DirectionsFirst English-language edition, New Directions, New York, 2012, translated by Chris Andrews and Natasha Wimmer. Hardcover, 144 pages, ISBN 9780811218153; the English text collects nineteen of the short pieces and sketches found on the author's computer after his death. Confirm the first printing by the New Directions imprint statement and 2012 copyright on the copyright page, with the printed jacket price present…. The Spanish original, El secreto del mal, was published posthumously by Anagrama (Barcelona) in 2007 and gathers twenty-one pieces, of which nineteen appear in this English edition; that Anagrama first is the true first, and New Directions issued the first English-language edition in 2012. No book club edition. New Directions issued this title only in the standard trade hardcover and a later paperback; the paperback is a separate later issue, not a first printing.
• Woes of the True Policeman — 2012 · Farrar, Straus and GirouxFirst US edition, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, published November 13, 2012, translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer. Hardcover in dust jacket, ISBN 9780374266745. A true first prints the full number line ending in 1 on the copyright page. The Spanish original, Los sinsabores del verdadero policía (posthumous, Anagrama, 2011), is the true first; FSG issued the first US English edition in 2012. No book club edition.
• The Unknown University — 2013 · New DirectionsFirst English-language edition, New Directions, July 2013, a substantial hardcover of roughly 888 pages presenting the complete poems in a bilingual Spanish/English text translated by Laura Healy, ISBN 9780811219280. The first printing is a hardcover issued in an unclipped dust jacket that retains its printed price. Shortlisted for the 2014 Best Translated Book Award. The Spanish original, La Universidad Desconocida (Editorial Anagrama, 2007), is the true first; New Directions issued the first English/bilingual edition as a hardcover in 2013. No book club edition.
• A Little Lumpen Novelita — 2014 · New DirectionsFirst English-language edition, New Directions, published September 16, 2014, translated by Natasha Wimmer. Hardcover of 128 pages, ISBN 9780811223355, issued in a printed dust jacket. First printings carry the New Directions edition statement on the copyright page and were released to a starred Publishers Weekly review; the priced jacket should be present and unclipped for a complete first-issue copy. The Spanish original, Una novelita lumpen (Anagrama, 2002), is the true first edition of the text; New Directions issued the first English-language edition in September 2014. No book club edition; the New Directions hardcover is the first English appearance and later New Directions paperback printings follow it.

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