# Is "Bambi (Bambi: Eine Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde)" by Felix Salten a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Bambi (Bambi: Eine Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde) by Felix Salten (Ullstein, 1923) is identified by: The true first is the German-language "Bambi: Eine Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde", Ullstein Verlag, Berlin, 1923, following serialisation in the Vienna newspaper Neue Freie Presse from 15 August to 21 October 1922. Original-language precedence, and the census claim is correct: the German Ullstein (Berlin) 1923 is the true first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The true first is the German-language "Bambi: Eine Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde", Ullstein Verlag, Berlin, 1923, following serialisation in the Vienna newspaper Neue Freie Presse from 15 August to 21 October 1922
- Dealers describe the original binding as quarter light blue cloth over pictorial boards printed with a watercolour forest scene, the spine lettered in blue, with a red top edge; the 1923 Ullstein text is unillustrated
- Copies of the 1923 are scarce for a documented reason rather than a market one: the book was banned in Nazi Germany in 1935 as a political allegory on the treatment of Jews in Europe, and copies were burned
- FOR THE FIRST ENGLISH: Simon & Schuster, New York, 1928, translated by Whittaker Chambers with a foreword by John Galsworthy and illustrated by Kurt Wiese (frontispiece and 25 plates), 209 pp., green cloth lettered in gilt, with a vignette title page printed in black and green; the trade issue's title-page verso reads "First printing in America, July 1928", and later printings do not carry that line
- One point to check before calling any 1928 Simon & Schuster copy the first English printing: ABAA dealers record a limited issue of 1,000 copies carrying a limitation leaf that PRECEDES the S&S trade issue, so the limitation leaf, not the July 1928 statement, is the senior point in English
- Publisher imprint reads Ullstein
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Felix Salten |
| Publisher | Ullstein |
| Year | 1923 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | The true first is the German-language "Bambi: Eine Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde", Ullstein Verlag, Berlin, 1923, following serialisation… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The true first is the German-language "Bambi: Eine Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde", Ullstein Verlag, Berlin, 1923, following serialisation in the Vienna newspaper Neue Freie Presse from 15 August to 21 October 1922. Dealers describe the original binding as quarter light blue cloth over pictorial boards printed with a watercolour forest scene, the spine lettered in blue, with a red top edge; the 1923 Ullstein text is unillustrated. Copies of the 1923 are scarce for a documented reason rather than a market one: the book was banned in Nazi Germany in 1935 as a political allegory on the treatment of Jews in Europe, and copies were burned. FOR THE FIRST ENGLISH: Simon & Schuster, New York, 1928, translated by Whittaker Chambers with a foreword by John Galsworthy and illustrated by Kurt Wiese (frontispiece and 25 plates), 209 pp., green cloth lettered in gilt, with a vignette title page printed in black and green; the trade issue's title-page verso reads "First printing in America, July 1928", and later printings do not carry that line. One point to check before calling any 1928 Simon & Schuster copy the first English printing: ABAA dealers record a limited issue of 1,000 copies carrying a limitation leaf that PRECEDES the S&S trade issue, so the limitation leaf, not the July 1928 statement, is the senior point in English.

## Is this the true first?
Original-language precedence, and the census claim is correct: the German Ullstein (Berlin) 1923 is the true first. Both English editions are translations and both are collected in their own right, so both should be named. Simon & Schuster (New York, 1928) precedes Jonathan Cape (London, 1928), which makes the Simon & Schuster the first edition in English and the Cape the first UK edition; the Chambers translation and Galsworthy foreword are common to both. Anglophone catalogues and dealers very frequently list the 1928 Simon & Schuster as "the first edition" of Bambi — that is a first-in-English, not the true first, and it is the standard trap on this title.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented in the sources consulted. The dominant reprint population is post-1942, driven by the Walt Disney film: any copy carrying Disney artwork, film credit, or film tie-in wording is a reprint and unrelated to either 1923 or 1928. On Simon & Schuster copies, the absence of the "First printing in America, July 1928" statement on the title-page verso indicates a later printing. On German copies, later Ullstein and post-war reissues (the novel was republished in Vienna in 1926) are not the 1923 Berlin first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Bambi (Bambi: Eine Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde)* by Felix Salten a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/bambi-bambi-eine-lebensgeschichte-aus-dem-walde
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.