# Is "If on a winter's night a traveler" by Italo Calvino a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino (Giulio Einaudi, 1979) is identified by: Italian 'Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore,' Einaudi, Turin, 1979, is the true first. True first is the Italian Einaudi 1979.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Italian 'Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore,' Einaudi, Turin, 1979, is the true first
- First English edition: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1981 (translated by William Weaver), cloth-covered boards, roughly 260 pages, the jacket designed by Rubin Pfeffer with a photograph by Benn Mitchell and the printed price present on the flap
- UK Secker & Warburg followed in 1981
- Publisher imprint reads Giulio Einaudi
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Italo Calvino |
| Publisher | Giulio Einaudi |
| Year | 1979 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Italian 'Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore,' Einaudi, Turin, 1979, is the true first |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
Italian 'Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore,' Einaudi, Turin, 1979, is the true first. First English edition: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1981 (translated by William Weaver), cloth-covered boards, roughly 260 pages, the jacket designed by Rubin Pfeffer with a photograph by Benn Mitchell and the printed price present on the flap; UK Secker & Warburg followed in 1981.

## Is this the true first?
True first is the Italian Einaudi 1979. First in English is the US Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 1981; later US printings are noted on the copyright page, so the first should show no later-printing statement.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Later printings are shown by the copyright-page printing statement; English firsts are distinguished by imprint (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich for the US, Secker & Warburg for the UK) and the printed jacket price.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *If on a winter's night a traveler* by Italo Calvino a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/if-on-a-winters-night-a-traveler
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.