# Is ""Master Harold"...and the boys" by Athol Fugard a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of "Master Harold"...and the boys by Athol Fugard (Alfred A. Knopf, 1982) is identified by: First printing is a slim octavo, 60 pp., in cloth with dust jacket (ISBN 0394528743), issued as "A Borzoi Book," distributed by Random House. US true first: Alfred A.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First printing is a slim octavo, 60 pp., in cloth with dust jacket (ISBN 0394528743), issued as "A Borzoi Book," distributed by Random House
- Knopf house practice since 1933-34 is that the first printing states "FIRST EDITION" on the copyright page with the Borzoi device; in the number-line era the descending printer's key accompanies the words rather than replacing them, so a 1982 Knopf first shows both the stated line and a number line running down to 1 — a copy lacking the stated "FIRST EDITION" line is a later printing or a club copy
- Dealer listings additionally report a red top stain and a dust jacket designed by Robert Anthony; both are plausible and repeatedly reported but were not independently corroborated in the catalogues consulted, so treat them as supporting rather than decisive
- Priced jacket / price present at the flap on unclipped trade copies
- Publisher imprint reads Alfred A. Knopf
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Athol Fugard |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
| Year | 1982 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | First printing is a slim octavo, 60 pp., in cloth with dust jacket (ISBN 0394528743), issued as "A Borzoi Book," distributed by Random House |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
First printing is a slim octavo, 60 pp., in cloth with dust jacket (ISBN 0394528743), issued as "A Borzoi Book," distributed by Random House. Knopf house practice since 1933-34 is that the first printing states "FIRST EDITION" on the copyright page with the Borzoi device; in the number-line era the descending printer's key accompanies the words rather than replacing them, so a 1982 Knopf first shows both the stated line and a number line running down to 1 — a copy lacking the stated "FIRST EDITION" line is a later printing or a club copy. Dealer listings additionally report a red top stain and a dust jacket designed by Robert Anthony; both are plausible and repeatedly reported but were not independently corroborated in the catalogues consulted, so treat them as supporting rather than decisive. Priced jacket / price present at the flap on unclipped trade copies.

## Is this the true first?
US true first: Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1982 — the census claim is confirmed. The play premiered at the Yale Repertory Theatre in March 1982 and reached Broadway in May 1982, and the Knopf hardcover is the first book publication; no earlier South African edition was located in the sources consulted (a negative finding limited by those sources). The UK Oxford University Press edition of 1983 (ISBN 0192813943) followed, and is catalogued as an Oxford paperback rather than a competing hardcover first — so Knopf 1982 is unambiguously the edition to collect and there is no UK/US split here. First-thus trap: the Samuel French acting edition and the Vintage International reissue (ISBN 9780307475206) are later publications.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
A Knopf-dated 1982 book club edition circulates and is documented by Rare Book Cellar and by an Open Library record explicitly designating "Book Club edition" (catalogued at 61 pp. plus 4 pp. of plates against the trade first's 60 pp.). Dealers distinguish trade copies by the price present at the jacket flap and by the stated first-edition line — one listing explicitly warrants its copy as "NOT a BOMC edition." Caution documented in Knopf's own identification guidance: Knopf frequently blind-stamps its Borzoi logo on the rear board of trade copies, and this must not be mistaken for a book-club deboss.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *"Master Harold"...and the boys* by Athol Fugard a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/master-harold-and-the-boys
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.