3 Yukio Mishima first editions are documented on this shelf, from The Sound of Waves (Shiosai) (1956) to The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (Kinkakuji) (1959) across 2 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Yukio Mishima 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 Yukio Mishima copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- The Sound of Waves (Shiosai) — 1956 · Alfred A. KnopfFirst American edition, first printing, translated by Meredith Weatherby, with drawings by Yoshinori Kinoshita. Borzoi colophon present; copyright page carries the FIRST AMERICAN EDITION statement. Bound in decorative papered boards. Pictorial dust jacket (jacket painting by Jose de Almeida). This was the first of Mishima's books translated and published in the United States. The Knopf US edition of 1956 is the true first English-language edition; the UK Secker & Warburg edition followed in 1957. The Japanese original dates to 1954. Confirm Knopf priority via the FIRST AMERICAN EDITION statement. Later Berkley and Vintage paperbacks are reprints. A later printing will be marked accordingly; the true first carries the FIRST AMERICAN EDITION statement and Borzoi device.
- Confessions of a Mask (Kamen no Kokuhaku) — 1958 · New DirectionsFirst American edition, first printing, translated by Meredith Weatherby. New Directions imprint with no later-printing statement; bound in publisher's maroon cloth lettered in white. Original dust jacket. This was Mishima's first novel issued in English, though not his first book in English (The Sound of Waves, Knopf 1956, preceded it). The New Directions US edition of 1958 is the true first English-language edition, ahead of the UK (Peter Owen, 1960). The Japanese original dates to 1949 (Kawade Shobo). The Peter Owen UK 1960 edition is a later first-thus. New Directions Paperbook (NDP) issues and later impressions carry printing codes. Reprints may add cover blurbs from Vidal, Baldwin, or Isherwood.
- The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (Kinkakuji) — 1959 · Alfred A. KnopfFirst American edition, first printing, translated by Ivan Morris, with an introduction by Nancy Wilson Ross and drawings by Fumi Komatsu. Borzoi colophon present; copyright page carries the FIRST AMERICAN EDITION statement. Bound in red cloth spine over grey paper boards; illustrated dust jacket priced on the front flap. The Knopf US edition of 1959 is the first English-language edition; the UK Secker & Warburg edition followed the same year. The Japanese original dates to 1956. Confirm Knopf priority via the colophon and FIRST AMERICAN EDITION statement. Vintage International and later paperbacks are reprints. A reprint will lack the Borzoi device and the FIRST AMERICAN EDITION line.
More Literary Fiction (UK & World) shelves: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Alice Munro, Amos Oz, André Gide, Boris Pasternak, Camilo José Cela (trans. J. M. Cohen with Arturo Barea).
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