# Is "Black Spring" by Henry Miller a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Black Spring by Henry Miller (The Obelisk Press, 1936) is identified by: True first is the Paris Obelisk Press printing, 1936, from Obelisk's address at 338 Rue Saint-Honoré, Paris — one of 1,000 copies. TRUE FIRST IS PARIS — Obelisk Press, 1936, in wrappers; the census is correct.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- True first is the Paris Obelisk Press printing, 1936, from Obelisk's address at 338 Rue Saint-Honoré, Paris — one of 1,000 copies
- Issued in original pictorial self-wrappers (soft covers), uncut and often partially unopened, with a deckle-edged text block
- The pictorial front panel was designed by M. J. Kahane — Maurice Kahane, son of Obelisk's founder Jack Kahane, later known as Maurice Girodias of the Olympia Press
- An original Obelisk Press price ticket is present at the front flap fold and on the rear panel — a priced wrapper
- The book is dedicated to Anaïs Nin; it is Miller's second book, following Tropic of Cancer
- and preceding Tropic of Capricorn
- Publisher imprint reads The Obelisk Press

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Henry Miller |
| Publisher | The Obelisk Press |
| Year | 1936 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | True first is the Paris Obelisk Press printing, 1936, from Obelisk's address at 338 Rue Saint-Honoré, Paris — one of 1,000 copies |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
True first is the Paris Obelisk Press printing, 1936, from Obelisk's address at 338 Rue Saint-Honoré, Paris — one of 1,000 copies. Issued in original pictorial self-wrappers (soft covers), uncut and often partially unopened, with a deckle-edged text block. The pictorial front panel was designed by M. J. Kahane — Maurice Kahane, son of Obelisk's founder Jack Kahane, later known as Maurice Girodias of the Olympia Press. An original Obelisk Press price ticket is present at the front flap fold and on the rear panel — a priced wrapper. The book is dedicated to Anaïs Nin; it is Miller's second book, following Tropic of Cancer (1934) and preceding Tropic of Capricorn (1939), and collects ten autobiographical pieces. Browning and chipping to the spine are near-universal condition faults, not points. NOT VERIFIED: no distinct first-issue/second-issue state within the 1936 Obelisk printing is documented in the sources consulted — Bauman expressly declines to identify any first-issue point distinguishing this printing from later states, so "first issue" claims for this title should be treated sceptically absent a Shifreen & Jackson citation.

## Is this the true first?
TRUE FIRST IS PARIS — Obelisk Press, 1936, in wrappers; the census is correct. Miller wrote in English, so the Paris edition is the true first and the first in the original language; it was banned across the English-speaking world on publication. The first American edition is Grove Press, New York, 1963 — confirmed, matching the census claim — issued after Grove's successful court challenge; it is a "first American edition, first printing", not a first edition. Both the Obelisk 1936 and the Grove 1963 are collected, the 1936 decisively so. There is no UK edition preceding the American one.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented for the Paris first. The reprint tell is the Grove Press 1963 first American edition: half black boards over striated grey boards, gilt spine lettering with the author's signature in gilt, 243 pages — a hardcover, where the true first is a wrappered book. Black Spring was never issued in publisher's cloth in Paris, so a cloth-bound copy is either the Grove edition or a later private binding of the Paris sheets; a rebound Paris copy remains a first but has lost its identifying wrappers.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Black Spring* by Henry Miller a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/black-spring
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.