Is My Miss Julie (Fröken Julie) a First Edition?

The points of issue

• The first edition title page reads 'Fröken Julie / Ett naturalistiskt sorgespel / af August Strindberg / Med ett förord af författaren / STOCKHOLM / JOS. SELIGMANNS FÖRLAG' and is dated 1888; the author's preface promised on the title page is present
• It was issued in Stockholm in the week of 23–29 November 1888, ahead of the premiere
• Swedish drama of this period carries no printing statement and no number line, so identification rests on the Jos
• Seligmann imprint and the 1888 title-page date; the census's 'Josef Seligmann' should read Jos
• Seligmanns Förlag (the publisher Joseph Seligmann)
• The defining textual point is that this first edition prints a censored text: Seligmann required cuts and alterations before typesetting, later identified by scholars at roughly 330 places across the preface and dialogue and distinguishable in the manuscript by ink colour under infrared and stereomicroscopic analysis

How to confirm the first-printing statement

Publishers stated first printings differently by era. The decisive tells are a printed “First Edition/First Printing” statement, a number line whose lowest number is 1 (Random House ends at 2), or a dated first printing with no later printings listed. Paste your copyright page into the number-line decoder.

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Confirm the first-edition statement — look for “First Edition,” “First Printing,” or the publisher’s equivalent wording.
3. Read the number line — the lowest number is the printing. A line including 1 is a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2). Paste it into the decoder.
4. Verify this is the UK true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
5. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
6. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

The Swedish original is the true first: Stockholm, Jos. Seligmanns Förlag, 1888. Strindberg wrote in Swedish and no English edition is remotely contemporary, so there is no UK-vs-US question here; the first foreign appearance is the Danish translation by Nathalia Larsen, published in the week of 14–21 February 1889. English translations follow decades later and are never the first edition of the work — anything catalogued as a 'first edition' of Miss Julie in English is at most a first edition in English. A related first-thus trap: because the 1888 text was censored, the texts in general circulation descend from later restorations (the manuscript became accessible to scholars in 1936; Harry Bergholz attempted a reconstruction in 1954; Gunnar Ollén's 1984 edition is the closest to Strindberg's intended printer's text). Those restored texts are first-thus appearances of a reconstructed text, not editions of record.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

None documented. The trap in this author's market is the collected-edition reprint rather than a book club: John Landquist's text in vol. 23 of Strindberg's Samlade Skrifter (1914) was produced without access to the original manuscript, reprints the censored text, and is not an edition of record.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Miss Julie (Fröken Julie) a first edition?

A first edition of Miss Julie (Fröken Julie) by August Strindberg (Jos. Seligmanns Förlag, Stockholm) is identified by: The first edition title page reads 'Fröken Julie / Ett naturalistiskt sorgespel / af August Strindberg / Med ett förord af författaren / STOCKHOLM / JOS.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A number line whose lowest number is 1 marks a first printing (Random House ends at 2). The Swedish original is the true first: Stockholm, Jos.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

None documented. The trap in this author's market is the collected-edition reprint rather than a book club: John Landquist's text in vol. 23 of Strindberg's Samlade Skrifter (1914) was produced without access to the original manuscript, reprints the censored text, and is not an edition of record.

I have a first edition of Miss Julie (Fröken Julie) — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.