# Is "Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings" by Jorge Luis Borges (ed. Donald A. Yates & James E. Irby; preface by André Maurois) a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings by Jorge Luis Borges (ed. Donald A. Yates & James E. Irby; preface by André Maurois) (New Directions, New York, 1962) is identified by: First edition thus, a compilation original to English rather than a translation of a single Spanish book. First-thus: this anthology has no single Spanish-language counterpart, so the 1962 New Directions edition is itself the true first of this collection.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition thus, a compilation original to English rather than a translation of a single Spanish book
- New Directions, 1962: quarter black cloth with patterned paper-covered boards, frontispiece portrait, edited by Donald A. Yates and James E. Irby with a preface by André Maurois
- The hardcover in dust jacket is the collectible first issue
- New Directions also issued the title as a paperbook (NDP186) in the same period
- The 1962 first contains fewer pieces than the text as later augmented in 1964, so an early printing should not include the additional 1964 material
- Publisher imprint reads New Directions, New York
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Jorge Luis Borges (ed. Donald A. Yates & James E. Irby; preface by André Maurois) |
| Publisher | New Directions, New York |
| Year | 1962 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition thus, a compilation original to English rather than a translation of a single Spanish book |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First edition thus, a compilation original to English rather than a translation of a single Spanish book. New Directions, 1962: quarter black cloth with patterned paper-covered boards, frontispiece portrait, edited by Donald A. Yates and James E. Irby with a preface by André Maurois. The hardcover in dust jacket is the collectible first issue; New Directions also issued the title as a paperbook (NDP186) in the same period. The 1962 first contains fewer pieces than the text as later augmented in 1964, so an early printing should not include the additional 1964 material.

## Is this the true first?
First-thus: this anthology has no single Spanish-language counterpart, so the 1962 New Directions edition is itself the true first of this collection. It and Grove's Ficciones (also 1962) jointly introduced Borges to English-language readers.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Kept in print for decades as a paperbook; later printings carry the augmented (post-1964) text and updated copyright pages. The simultaneous paperbook is not the hardcover first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings* by Jorge Luis Borges (ed. Donald A. Yates & James E. Irby; preface by André Maurois) a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/labyrinths-selected-stories-other-writings
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.