Is My Doctor Zhivago a First Edition?

The points of issue

• First English edition: prose translated by Max Hayward and Manya Harari, with 'The Poems of Yurii Zhivago' at the rear rendered by Bernard Guilbert Guerney
• The UK Collins & Harvill edition (London, 1958) is customarily cited as the first English: octavo, publisher's red cloth with gilt (and black) spine lettering, 510 pp including the poems, in John Woodcock's block-colour dust jacket with its printed price at the flap
• The first-issue jacket carries the author's photograph on the back panel and NO reference to the Nobel Prize or review blurbs (Pasternak's Nobel came October 1958, after publication)
• The US Pantheon edition (New York, 1958) appeared the same autumn; its copyright page in fact credits Collins & Harvill with the English-translation copyright
• Identify a Pantheon first printing by a copyright page free of any later-impression statement, as the title saw many rapid impressions

How to confirm the first-printing statement

Publishers stated first printings differently by era. The decisive tells are a printed “First Edition/First Printing” statement, a number line whose lowest number is 1 (Random House ends at 2), or a dated first printing with no later printings listed. Paste your copyright page into the number-line decoder.

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Confirm the first-edition statement — look for “First Edition,” “First Printing,” or the publisher’s equivalent wording.
3. Check for a number line or dated printing — the lowest number present is the printing; a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the tell.
4. Verify this is the UK true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
5. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
6. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

The world first is the Italian Feltrinelli edition (Milan, 15 November 1957; slugged 'prima edizione mondiale in lingua italiana'), which precedes everything. The 1958 Russian-language editions do NOT precede it and are routinely misidentified as firsts: the CIA-sponsored Mouton printing (The Hague, 1958, put out over Feltrinelli's imprint and handed to Soviet visitors at the Brussels World's Fair) and Feltrinelli's own authorised Russian edition (1958-59). A French edition also preceded the English. For the first English, the UK Collins & Harvill 1958 is customarily cited as the first English-language printing; the US Pantheon 1958 followed closely the same year (both autumn 1958).P-036476

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

Many 1958 impressions exist (a twentieth printing and beyond are recorded), so any copyright-page impression statement other than the first marks a reprint. Later jackets add Nobel-Prize wording and review blurbs. US book-club issues lack the flap price and may carry a blind-stamp to the rear board.P-036477

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Doctor Zhivago a first edition?

A first edition of Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak (Collins and Harvill Press) is identified by: First English edition: prose translated by Max Hayward and Manya Harari, with 'The Poems of Yurii Zhivago' at the rear rendered by Bernard Guilbert Guerney.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A stated first edition, a number line ending in 1, or a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the key. The world first is the Italian Feltrinelli edition (Milan, 15 November 1957; slugged 'prima edizione mondiale in lingua italiana'), which precedes everything.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

Many 1958 impressions exist (a twentieth printing and beyond are recorded), so any copyright-page impression statement other than the first marks a reprint. Later jackets add Nobel-Prize wording and review blurbs. US book-club issues lack the flap price and may carry a blind-stamp to the rear board.

I have a first edition of Doctor Zhivago — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.