# Is "Lolita (adaptation of Nabokov)" by Edward Albee a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Lolita (adaptation of Nabokov) by Edward Albee (Dramatists Play Service, 1998) is identified by: First and only free-standing script publication: the Dramatists Play Service acting edition in printed wrappers, New York, 1998, roughly 72 pages, issued as a saddle-stitched/perfect-bound softcover in the house DPS format rather than as a trade hardcover. The only script publications are the Dramatists Play Service acting edition of 1998 (the true first appearance of the text in print) and a later gathering in The Collected Plays of Edward Albee, Volume Three (Overlook Duckworth, 2005).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First and only free-standing script publication: the Dramatists Play Service acting edition in printed wrappers, New York, 1998, roughly 72 pages, issued as a saddle-stitched/perfect-bound softcover in the house DPS format rather than as a trade hardcover
- As with all DPS acting editions it carries no number line; identification rests on the DPS imprint and 1998 date on the title and copyright pages
- The credit line reads that the play was adapted by Edward Albee from the novel by Vladimir Nabokov
- Publisher imprint reads Dramatists Play Service
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Edward Albee |
| Publisher | Dramatists Play Service |
| Year | 1998 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First and only free-standing script publication: the Dramatists Play Service acting… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
First and only free-standing script publication: the Dramatists Play Service acting edition in printed wrappers, New York, 1998, roughly 72 pages, issued as a saddle-stitched/perfect-bound softcover in the house DPS format rather than as a trade hardcover. As with all DPS acting editions it carries no number line; identification rests on the DPS imprint and 1998 date on the title and copyright pages. The credit line reads that the play was adapted by Edward Albee from the novel by Vladimir Nabokov.

## Is this the true first?
The only script publications are the Dramatists Play Service acting edition of 1998 (the true first appearance of the text in print) and a later gathering in The Collected Plays of Edward Albee, Volume Three (Overlook Duckworth, 2005). There is no trade hardcover first. Note that the 1981 Brooks Atkinson Theatre Broadway production used a heavily altered text that Albee disowned as not his adaptation, so the 1998 DPS printing is the first publication of Albee's own intended text.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book club edition; acting editions of this kind were never offered through book clubs.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Lolita (adaptation of Nabokov)* by Edward Albee a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/lolita-adaptation-of-nabokov
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-03.