# Is "Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things" by Lafcadio Hearn a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things by Lafcadio Hearn (Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston & New York, 1904) is identified by: [1-2] [i-ii] iii [iv-viii] [1-2] 3-240 [241: blank] [242: printer's imprint] [243-244: blank], with a fly leaf preceding the credit leaf. The true first is the American edition: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston & New York, April 1904.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Octavo, collating pp. [1-2] [i-ii] iii [iv-viii] [1-2] 3-240 [241: blank] [242: printer's imprint] [243-244: blank], with a fly leaf preceding the credit leaf
- Bound in original pictorial greenish-black sateen-like cloth, front and spine panels stamped in orange, green and gold, top edge gilt
- The text is printed throughout in orange and black, and there are two inserted plates with drawings by Keichu Takenouche
- The copyright page carries an April 1904 publication date
- The pictorial dust jacket — light green paper printed in dark green ink — is rare; refer to it only as a priced jacket / price present at the flap where applicable
- Currey cites this book as BAL 7940 (issue B), so the Bibliography of American Literature records more than one issue, and I could NOT establish from the sources consulted which BAL issue has priority — a collector should resolve the A/B question against BAL itself before calling a copy the first issue
- Publisher imprint reads Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston & New York

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Lafcadio Hearn |
| Publisher | Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston & New York |
| Year | 1904 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Octavo, collating pp. [1-2] [i-ii] iii [iv-viii] [1-2] 3-240 [241: blank] [242: printer's imprint] [243-244: blank], with a fly leaf… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Octavo, collating pp. [1-2] [i-ii] iii [iv-viii] [1-2] 3-240 [241: blank] [242: printer's imprint] [243-244: blank], with a fly leaf preceding the credit leaf. Bound in original pictorial greenish-black sateen-like cloth, front and spine panels stamped in orange, green and gold, top edge gilt. The text is printed throughout in orange and black, and there are two inserted plates with drawings by Keichu Takenouche. The copyright page carries an April 1904 publication date. The pictorial dust jacket — light green paper printed in dark green ink — is rare; refer to it only as a priced jacket / price present at the flap where applicable. Currey cites this book as BAL 7940 (issue B), so the Bibliography of American Literature records more than one issue, and I could NOT establish from the sources consulted which BAL issue has priority — a collector should resolve the A/B question against BAL itself before calling a copy the first issue.

## Is this the true first?
The true first is the American edition: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston & New York, April 1904. Hearn wrote in English from Japan, working from old Japanese texts, so this is the original-language first — there is no earlier Japanese-language edition to displace it. The London edition, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1904, is separately collected as the first English edition and is found in green cloth titled and ruled in gilt, top edge gilt. The census claim that the London Kegan Paul issue was made up from American sheets is NOT confirmed — I could not trace it to a primary dealer or bibliographic source, and an uncorroborated report points the other way (that the publisher's Introduction, prompted by the February 1904 outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, is absent from the London first edition and appears there only in a later issue). Do not publish the American-sheets claim as fact.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue documented for 1904. The principal traps are later fine-press and reprint editions, not book clubs: the Limited Editions Club issue printed in Tokyo by The Shimbi Shoin, 1932, in Japanese brocade boards with a silk wrap-case, limited to 1500 copies signed by illustrator Yasumasa Fujita with an introduction by Oscar Lewis, is frequently mistaken for an early edition; a German translation was issued by Rütten & Loening, Frankfurt am Main, 1909, illustrated by Emil Orlik. Neither is a first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things* by Lafcadio Hearn a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/kwaidan-stories-and-studies-of-strange-things
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.