# Is "Happy Days" by Samuel Beckett a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Happy Days by Samuel Beckett (Grove Press, New York, 1961) is identified by: CORRECTION to the census framing: the Grove first is a PAPERBACK ORIGINAL, not a hardcover. US true first: Grove Press, New York, 1961 — the census claim is confirmed on precedence, and its reasoning is sound.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- CORRECTION to the census framing: the Grove first is a PAPERBACK ORIGINAL, not a hardcover
- It was issued in stiff glossy pictorial wrappers as an Evergreen paperback, catalogue number E-318, 1961, 64 pp., and was NOT issued simultaneously in a clothbound state — an ABAA dealer states this explicitly as characteristic of Grove Press productions of the period
- Anyone hunting a Grove hardcover of Happy Days in cloth and jacket is hunting a book that does not exist, and any clothbound "Grove Happy Days" offered as a first should be treated as misdescribed until proven
- First-printing identification: Grove notes first editions and subsequent printings on the copyright page, so the first shows the stated first Evergreen edition with no additional printing noted; dealers describe copies as "stated first Evergreen edition with no additional printings mentioned." Because the book is a wrappers original, condition points are the wrappers themselves — there is no jacket and therefore no flap price to consult on the Grove issue
- Publisher imprint reads Grove Press, New York
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Samuel Beckett |
| Publisher | Grove Press, New York |
| Year | 1961 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | CORRECTION to the census framing: the Grove first is a PAPERBACK ORIGINAL, not a hardcover |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
CORRECTION to the census framing: the Grove first is a PAPERBACK ORIGINAL, not a hardcover. It was issued in stiff glossy pictorial wrappers as an Evergreen paperback, catalogue number E-318, 1961, 64 pp., and was NOT issued simultaneously in a clothbound state — an ABAA dealer states this explicitly as characteristic of Grove Press productions of the period. Anyone hunting a Grove hardcover of Happy Days in cloth and jacket is hunting a book that does not exist, and any clothbound "Grove Happy Days" offered as a first should be treated as misdescribed until proven. First-printing identification: Grove notes first editions and subsequent printings on the copyright page, so the first shows the stated first Evergreen edition with no additional printing noted; dealers describe copies as "stated first Evergreen edition with no additional printings mentioned." Because the book is a wrappers original, condition points are the wrappers themselves — there is no jacket and therefore no flap price to consult on the Grove issue.

## Is this the true first?
US true first: Grove Press, New York, 1961 — the census claim is confirmed on precedence, and its reasoning is sound. Beckett wrote Happy Days in English, so Grove precedes both the UK and the French, which is indeed the reverse of the Godot pattern; the world premiere was at the Cherry Lane Theatre, New York, on 17 September 1961. The first English (UK) edition is Faber and Faber, London, 1962 — publisher's red cloth, gilt titling to the spine, 48 pp., in a photographic dust jacket, and it is the first hardcover appearance of the play in any market, which makes it independently collectible alongside the Grove wrappers original; note that Wikipedia dates the Faber to 1963, but the dealer consensus (Shapero, Ulysses, James Cummins) is firmly 1962 and Wikipedia should not be followed here. Beckett's own French version, Oh les beaux jours, followed from Les Éditions de Minuit in 1963 — a translation by the author, not a competing original. Both the Grove 1961 and the Faber 1962 are collected; the Faber is catalogued in the Beckett bibliography as Federman/Fletcher 39.1, "First Edition in England."

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented in the sources consulted for either the Grove or the Faber edition — unsurprising for a slim avant-garde play text, and the Grove issue's wrappers format makes a club printing inapplicable. The live reprint trap is not a club edition but format confusion: later Grove/Evergreen printings and the Faber reissues (later ISBNs 9780571229161, 9780571244577, 9780571297030) are routinely offered as "first editions" on the strength of the 1961 or 1962 copyright date. Read the Grove copyright page for the absence of any additional printing statement; on Faber, confirm the 1962 date and the red cloth.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Happy Days* by Samuel Beckett a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/happy-days
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.