# Is "Lady Chatterley's Lover" by D. H. Lawrence a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence (Privately printed, 1928) is identified by: True first (Roberts A42a): privately printed in Florence, 1928, limited to 1,000 numbered copies SIGNED by Lawrence and issued by subscription; the unexpurgated text. The 1928 Florence private printing of 1,000 signed copies is the true first (Roberts A42a); there is no earlier edition.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- True first (Roberts A42a): privately printed in Florence, 1928, limited to 1,000 numbered copies SIGNED by Lawrence and issued by subscription; the unexpurgated text
- Bound in mulberry-colored paper boards with the black phoenix device on the upper cover and a white paper label on the spine
- Printed by the Tipografia Giuntina under the direction of the Florentine bookseller Giuseppe ('Pino') Orioli
- The author's signature and the hand-numbered limitation leaf (numbered to 1,000) are the core points
- Publisher imprint reads Privately printed
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | D. H. Lawrence |
| Publisher | Privately printed |
| Year | 1928 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | True first (Roberts A42a): privately printed in Florence, 1928, limited to 1,000 numbered copies SIGNED by Lawrence and issued by… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
True first (Roberts A42a): privately printed in Florence, 1928, limited to 1,000 numbered copies SIGNED by Lawrence and issued by subscription; the unexpurgated text. Bound in mulberry-colored paper boards with the black phoenix device on the upper cover and a white paper label on the spine. Printed by the Tipografia Giuntina under the direction of the Florentine bookseller Giuseppe ('Pino') Orioli. The author's signature and the hand-numbered limitation leaf (numbered to 1,000) are the core points.

## Is this the true first?
The 1928 Florence private printing of 1,000 signed copies is the true first (Roberts A42a); there is no earlier edition. Two later editions are frequently confused with it but do NOT displace it: the 1929 Paris 'popular edition' (Edward Titus, c. 3,000 copies, unexpurgated, with Lawrence's new introduction 'My Skirmish with Jolly Roger') was AUTHORIZED by Lawrence himself to undercut the pirates — later than Florence, but not a piracy; and the numerous 1928-29 pirated editions are unauthorized. The first unexpurgated UK trade edition did not appear until Penguin's 1960 post-trial printing, which is collected as a separate landmark.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Precedence traps to watch: (1) an UNSIGNED 'Florence 1928' copy is almost certainly the second issue — the c. 200-copy 'cheap paper' printing on common paper (Roberts A42b, late 1928), not the true first; (2) the 1932 Martin Secker (London) and Alfred A. Knopf (New York) trade editions are AUTHORIZED but EXPURGATED/abridged, and are the copies most often missold as the 'first edition' — neither the first nor the full text; (3) numerous 1928-29 piracies imitate the Florence sheets. The genuine first is signed, hand-numbered to 1,000, in mulberry boards with the phoenix, of Giuntina/Orioli origin.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Lady Chatterley's Lover* by D. H. Lawrence a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/lady-chatterleys-lover
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.