# Is "Hunger (Sult)" by Knut Hamsun a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Hunger (Sult) by Knut Hamsun (P.G. Philipsens Forlag, 1890) is identified by: The true first is the 1890 P.G. The true first edition is the original-language 1890 Sult, P.G.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The true first is the 1890 P.G. Philipsens Forlag (Copenhagen) printing, octavo, 333 pp
- (collating [4], 333, [1]), published 2 June 1890 in a first print run of 2,100 copies
- It was issued simultaneously in two formats: a cheaper stitched/paperbound issue (heftet) and a publisher's cloth binding (forlagsbind)
- Hamsun asked for a black binding, but the publisher's cloth was actually issued in several colors — red, green, yellow, and blue — so "red cloth" is only one of the variant bindings, not a diagnostic point; many surviving copies are also in later owner-supplied bindings (e.g. contemporary half sheep and marbled boards), which are not the publisher's issue
- The title page reads København / P.G. Philipsens Forlag / 1890
- Note that although Hamsun was Norwegian, this Dano-Norwegian text was published through a Copenhagen house, so the true first carries a Danish (Copenhagen) imprint rather than a Norwegian one — a point that confuses buyers
- Publisher imprint reads P.G. Philipsens Forlag

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Knut Hamsun |
| Publisher | P.G. Philipsens Forlag |
| Year | 1890 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The true first is the 1890 P.G. Philipsens Forlag (Copenhagen) printing, octavo, 333 pp |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The true first is the 1890 P.G. Philipsens Forlag (Copenhagen) printing, octavo, 333 pp. (collating [4], 333, [1]), published 2 June 1890 in a first print run of 2,100 copies. It was issued simultaneously in two formats: a cheaper stitched/paperbound issue (heftet) and a publisher's cloth binding (forlagsbind). Hamsun asked for a black binding, but the publisher's cloth was actually issued in several colors — red, green, yellow, and blue — so "red cloth" is only one of the variant bindings, not a diagnostic point; many surviving copies are also in later owner-supplied bindings (e.g. contemporary half sheep and marbled boards), which are not the publisher's issue. The title page reads København / P.G. Philipsens Forlag / 1890. Note that although Hamsun was Norwegian, this Dano-Norwegian text was published through a Copenhagen house, so the true first carries a Danish (Copenhagen) imprint rather than a Norwegian one — a point that confuses buyers. Dealers cite no granular textual first-issue priority point, so identification rests chiefly on the 1890 Philipsen Copenhagen imprint, the 1890 date, and the 333-pp. collation; Hamsun's later revised texts (1899, 1907, 1916) are separate editions, not states of the 1890 first.

## Is this the true first?
The true first edition is the original-language 1890 Sult, P.G. Philipsens Forlag, Copenhagen (Dano-Norwegian text). The first English-language edition is Hunger, translated by George Egerton (pseudonym of Mary Chavelita Dunne), published by Leonard Smithers and Co., London, 1899 — publisher's grey cloth stamped in black, octavo, collating x, 312 pp. plus publisher's ads. This Smithers issue also exists in original printed wrappers, which are far scarcer than the cloth (one dealer, Biblioctopus, records only a single wrappers copy in auction records over roughly the last 85 years — a scarcity claim that applies to the 1899 English wrappers issue, NOT to the 1890 Norwegian first). English-speaking collectors should note the 1899 Smithers Egerton translation is the first in English (nine years after the Norwegian original), distinct from the later widely reprinted Knopf issues of the same Egerton translation and from the modern Robert Bly (1967) and Sverre Lyngstad (1996) translations.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No significant book-club edition is a common trap for the original 1890 Sult, which is a genuinely scarce Scandinavian first. The traps here are different: (1) Hamsun's later revised Norwegian/Danish editions and Gyldendal reprintings (revisions in 1899, 1907, 1916) being mistaken for the 1890 first — verify the P.G. Philipsens Forlag, Copenhagen, 1890 imprint and the 333-pp. collation; (2) later owner rebindings (half sheep, marbled boards) being taken for a publisher's issue, and any single cloth color (red, green, yellow, or blue) being treated as THE first binding when the publisher issued several; and (3) for the English, later Knopf printings of the Egerton translation (the sixth printing of May 1921 and after was censored for sexual content, reduced from 266 to 263 pp.) being taken for the 1899 Leonard Smithers first English edition. Always confirm the Smithers, London, 1899 imprint for the English first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Hunger (Sult)* by Knut Hamsun a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/hunger
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.