# Is "Islands in the Stream" by Ernest Hemingway a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Islands in the Stream by Ernest Hemingway (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1970) is identified by: The first printing carries the Scribner code "A-9.70(V)" on the copyright page, transcribed by some dealers as "A 9.70 V": the leading capital A is Scribner's first-printing letter, 9.70 the month and year, and the bracketed letter the manufacturer. Census claim confirmed.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The first printing carries the Scribner code "A-9.70(V)" on the copyright page, transcribed by some dealers as "A 9.70 V": the leading capital A is Scribner's first-printing letter, 9.70 the month and year, and the bracketed letter the manufacturer
- Correction to the census note: the "Scribner seal" is not the point here
- From 1930 to 1973 Scribner's marked first printings with a capital A on the copyright page, used sometimes with the seal and sometimes — as in 1970 — with a month/year/manufacturer code instead; look for the A code, not a seal
- Octavo, collating [11],3-466,[2] pages
- Bound in green cloth, spine lettered in gilt, with a facsimile of Hemingway's signature stamped in gilt on the front board; maps printed on the yellow endpapers and pastedowns
- Priced jacket, with the price present at the front flap
- Publisher imprint reads Charles Scribner's Sons

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Ernest Hemingway |
| Publisher | Charles Scribner's Sons |
| Year | 1970 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The first printing carries the Scribner code "A-9.70(V)" on the copyright page, transcribed by some dealers as "A 9.70 V": the leading… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
The first printing carries the Scribner code "A-9.70(V)" on the copyright page, transcribed by some dealers as "A 9.70 V": the leading capital A is Scribner's first-printing letter, 9.70 the month and year, and the bracketed letter the manufacturer. Correction to the census note: the "Scribner seal" is not the point here. From 1930 to 1973 Scribner's marked first printings with a capital A on the copyright page, used sometimes with the seal and sometimes — as in 1970 — with a month/year/manufacturer code instead; look for the A code, not a seal. Octavo, collating [11],3-466,[2] pages. Bound in green cloth, spine lettered in gilt, with a facsimile of Hemingway's signature stamped in gilt on the front board; maps printed on the yellow endpapers and pastedowns. Priced jacket, with the price present at the front flap. Dealers cite Grissom A.42.1.a and Hanneman, Supplement 17a.

## Is this the true first?
Census claim confirmed. The true first is Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1970 — the first of the posthumous novels, published nine years after Hemingway's death, the manuscript having been found among his papers in 1969. The first UK edition is Collins, London, 1970; it is collected as the English first, and a Collins pre-publication sampler is also recorded. The exact Collins month could not be established here, so precedence rests on the trade's settled treatment of the Scribner issue as the first rather than on a dated month-by-month comparison.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
A full-size Scribner book-club printing of 1970 exists and is the standard confusion: it is in the same green cloth with the gilt facsimile signature on the front board, but it lacks the A code on the copyright page and carries a blind-stamped indent on the rear board, and its jacket has no price at the flap. The copyright-page code and the rear board are the two checks. The later Scribner Library paperback issues are plainly stated.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Islands in the Stream* by Ernest Hemingway a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/islands-in-the-stream
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.