2 Sean O'Casey first editions are documented on this shelf, from Two Plays (The Shadow of a Gunman; Juno and the Paycock) (1925) to The Plough and the Stars (1926). Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Sean O'Casey 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 Sean O'Casey copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.

Two Plays (The Shadow of a Gunman; Juno and the Paycock) — 1925 · Macmillan and Co., Ltd., LondonTrue first: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., London, 1925 — O'Casey's first book and the first book appearance of both plays. Bound in blue/blue-green paper-covered boards with a light-brown cloth/linen backstrip and printed paper title labels (title within a paper frame on the upper cover and spine), edges untrimmed, roughly v + 199 pp — the same board-and-label format as the 1926 Plough and the Stars. TRAP: copies…. London Macmillan and Co., Ltd. 1925 is the true first; the US issue (The Macmillan Company, New York, 1925) is the first American and follows the London edition. Written in English, no translation involved. Census direction (London first, New York follows) confirmed. Later Macmillan printings — including 1927-dated copies with the Augustus John frontispiece portrait — are reissues, not the first. No dedicated book-club edition documented.
The Plough and the Stars — 1926 · Macmillan and Co., Ltd., LondonTrue first: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., London, 1926 (Ayling & Durkan A13a). Bound in blue/blue-green paper-covered boards with a tan/beige cloth backstrip and printed paper title labels on the upper cover and spine, top edge stained green, fore- and tail-edges untrimmed; collation viii + 137 pp + 4 pp publisher's advertisements; issued in a fragile unclipped dust jacket. Identify by the 1926 London Macmillan…. London Macmillan and Co., Ltd. 1926 is the true first and precedes the US first American edition (The Macmillan Company, New York, 1926), which is bound in green cloth. Both dated 1926; London has priority. Written in English. Census claim confirmed. The green-cloth New York 1926 printing is the first American, not a book-club issue. No book-club edition of the London first is documented.

More Literary Fiction (US) & Award Winners shelves: Sebastian Faulks, Shelby Foote, Sherman Alexie, Siegfried Sassoon, Sinclair Lewis, Stanley Elkin.

← All authors · All genres · part of the First-Edition Identification resource.