The points of issue
Framing entry for the list itself, not a book to collect for points here. Connolly's 'The Modern Movement: One Hundred Key Books from England, France and America, 1880-1950' (1965) is the canonical modern-firsts checklist. The English-language high spots drawn from it and catalogued separately include James 'The Portrait of a Lady' (1881), Conrad 'Youth' (1902) and 'The Secret Agent' (1907), Joyce 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' (1916), 'Ulysses' (1922) and 'Finnegans Wake' (1939), Lawrence 'Sons and Lovers' (1913) and 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' (1928), Eliot 'Prufrock' (1917), 'The Waste Land' (1922) and 'Four Quartets', Forster 'A Passage to India' (1924), Woolf 'To the Lighthouse' (1927) and 'The Waves' (1931), Fitzgerald 'The Great Gatsby' (1925) and 'Tender Is the Night' (1934), Hemingway 'In Our Time' (1925), 'The Sun Also Rises' (1926) and 'A Farewell to Arms' (1929), Faulkner 'Sanctuary' (1931), Waugh 'Decline and Fall' (1928), Huxley 'Brave New World' (1932), Orwell 'Animal Farm' (1945) and 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' (1949), Greene 'The Power and the Glory' (1940) and Koestler 'Darkness at Noon' (1940). French titles (Proust, Gide, Camus, Sartre, Celine) belong in a French-firsts slice.
Is this the true first?
The list is a guide, not a book to collect for points here. The individual English-language entries carry their own true-first notes. French and UK-vs-US precedence is title-specific.
Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Framing entry only. Included so the orchestrator can confirm the Connolly canon is mined for its modern high spots. Deduplicate against the individual title entries and route French-language titles elsewhere.
Frequently asked questions
Is my copy of Connolly 'The Modern Movement' reference framing a first edition?
Look for these first-edition points: Framing entry for the list itself, not a book to collect for points here. Connolly's 'The Modern Movement: One Hundred Key Books from England, France and America, 1880-1950' (1965) is the canonical modern-firsts checklist. The English-language high spots drawn from it and catalogued separately include James 'The Portrait of a Lady' (1881), Conrad 'Youth' (1902) and 'The Secret Agent' (1907), Joyce 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' (1916), 'Ulysses' (1922) and 'Finnegans Wake' (1939), Lawrence 'Sons and Lovers' (1913) and 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' (1
How do I tell the first printing from a later one?
Check the copyright page for the publisher's first-printing convention and confirm the points above. The list is a guide, not a book to collect for points here. The individual English-language entries carry their own true-first notes. French and UK-vs-US precedence is title-specific.
Is the book-club edition the same as the first?
Framing entry only. Included so the orchestrator can confirm the Connolly canon is mined for its modern high spots. Deduplicate against the individual title entries and route French-language titles elsewhere.
I have a first edition of Connolly 'The Modern Movement' reference framing — what should I do?
If you're clearing books, New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup in Albuquerque, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies aren't lost. To sell, see the author's collecting guide. Either way, nothing valuable ends up in a landfill.