# Is "Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia" by Elizabeth Gilbert a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert (Viking, 2006) is identified by: Viking, New York, February 2006, ISBN 0-670-03471-1 (9780670034710), 334 pages, octavo (approx. The US Viking edition (New York, February 2006) is the true first edition, and it is the only edition with any claim to the first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Viking, New York, February 2006, ISBN 0-670-03471-1
- , 334 pages, octavo (approx
- 23.5 cm); dealers describe speckled white boards with a red spine and gilt spine lettering
- Dealers identify the first printing solely by the number line rather than by any edition statement — Viking/Penguin does not state "First Edition." The line is printed in Penguin's alternating odd-even form, "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2"; the presence of the 1 identifies the first printing, and a second printing reads "3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2." This matters practically: the Penguin line does not descend to 1 in the conventional way, so a collector who has been taught to look for a line "ending in 1" will misread it
- Any copy whose lowest surviving number is 3 or higher is a later printing
- Illustrated jacket, priced jacket / price present at the flap, unclipped, not remainder-marked
- Publisher imprint reads Viking

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Elizabeth Gilbert |
| Publisher | Viking |
| Year | 2006 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Viking, New York, February 2006, ISBN 0-670-03471-1 |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Viking, New York, February 2006, ISBN 0-670-03471-1 (9780670034710), 334 pages, octavo (approx. 23.5 cm); dealers describe speckled white boards with a red spine and gilt spine lettering. Dealers identify the first printing solely by the number line rather than by any edition statement — Viking/Penguin does not state "First Edition." The line is printed in Penguin's alternating odd-even form, "1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2"; the presence of the 1 identifies the first printing, and a second printing reads "3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2." This matters practically: the Penguin line does not descend to 1 in the conventional way, so a collector who has been taught to look for a line "ending in 1" will misread it. Any copy whose lowest surviving number is 3 or higher is a later printing. Illustrated jacket, priced jacket / price present at the flap, unclipped, not remainder-marked. No first-state text error, binding variant or jacket variant is documented for this title.

## Is this the true first?
The US Viking edition (New York, February 2006) is the true first edition, and it is the only edition with any claim to the first. The UK Bloomsbury edition followed on 5 March 2007, ISBN 0-7475-8566-0 (9780747585664), and was issued as a paperback — it has neither precedence nor standing as a collected first, so unlike most US/UK pairs there is no second edition to name here. The census note is correct as written. Later Penguin paperbacks, the Bloomsbury Modern Classics reissue and the 2010 film-tie-in issues are all "first thus" at best.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue of the Viking first is documented in the sources consulted. The reprint tells that matter are the number line — lowest number 3 or higher means a later printing — plus remainder marks and price-clipped jackets, which turn up on the many printings that followed the 2007-2010 bestseller and film run. Given how heavily this title was reprinted from identical plates, the number line is effectively the only point: the boards, jacket art and ISBN are unchanged across printings.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia* by Elizabeth Gilbert a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/eat-pray-love-one-womans-search-for-everything-across-italy
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.