# Is "Night (Un di Velt Hot Geshvign / La Nuit)" by Elie Wiesel a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Night (Un di Velt Hot Geshvign / La Nuit) by Elie Wiesel (Tsentral-Farband fun Poylishe Yidn in Argentine / Union Central Israelita Polaca en la Argentina, 1956) is identified by: Buenos Aires: Tsentral-Farband fun Poylishe Yidn in Argentine (Central Union of Polish Jews in Argentina), 1956. Original-language precedence sits with the Yiddish 1956 Buenos Aires edition; the census claim is correct.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Buenos Aires: Tsentral-Farband fun Poylishe Yidn in Argentine (Central Union of Polish Jews in Argentina), 1956
- Yiddish text, titled און די וועלט האט געשוויגן (Un di velt hot geshvign, "And the World Remained Silent")
- The decisive identification point is the series: it was issued as volume 117 of the 176-volume Yiddish series דאָס פּוילישע יידנטום (Dos poylishe yidntum / "Polish Jewry," 1946–1966), under the direction of Mark Turkov
- Bound in black and brown cloth with gilt titles to the spine and front board
- There is no printing statement and no number line — the 1956 Buenos Aires imprint and the series volume number carry the identification
- Pagination is reported inconsistently and the conflict is unresolved here: the standard accounts give 245 pp., while Manhattan Rare Books, describing a copy in hand, gives 253 pp
- Publisher imprint reads Tsentral-Farband fun Poylishe Yidn in Argentine / Union Central Israelita Polaca en la Argentina

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Elie Wiesel |
| Publisher | Tsentral-Farband fun Poylishe Yidn in Argentine / Union Central Israelita Polaca en la Argentina |
| Year | 1956 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Buenos Aires: Tsentral-Farband fun Poylishe Yidn in Argentine (Central Union of Polish Jews in Argentina), 1956 |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Buenos Aires: Tsentral-Farband fun Poylishe Yidn in Argentine (Central Union of Polish Jews in Argentina), 1956. Yiddish text, titled און די וועלט האט געשוויגן (Un di velt hot geshvign, "And the World Remained Silent"). The decisive identification point is the series: it was issued as volume 117 of the 176-volume Yiddish series דאָס פּוילישע יידנטום (Dos poylishe yidntum / "Polish Jewry," 1946–1966), under the direction of Mark Turkov. Bound in black and brown cloth with gilt titles to the spine and front board. There is no printing statement and no number line — the 1956 Buenos Aires imprint and the series volume number carry the identification. Pagination is reported inconsistently and the conflict is unresolved here: the standard accounts give 245 pp., while Manhattan Rare Books, describing a copy in hand, gives 253 pp.

## Is this the true first?
Original-language precedence sits with the Yiddish 1956 Buenos Aires edition; the census claim is correct. Three distinct editions are separately collected and all should be named. (1) The Yiddish first, above. (2) The French: La Nuit, Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit, 1958, 178 pp., with the preface by François Mauriac and the dedication to Chlomo, Sarah and Tzipora — this is a heavily cut and reworked text rather than a straight translation of the Yiddish, and it is the text from which the English descends. Jérôme Lindon accepted the book in 1957 and the title was settled in May 1958; copies dated 1957 do not exist. (3) The first English, translated from the French by Stella Rodway, published in 1960 in two editions: London: MacGibbon & Kee, whose copyright page states "First Published by MacGibbon & Kee 1960" (jacket designed by Cowan); and New York: Hill and Wang, whose copyright page states "First American Edition September 1960," in publisher's black cloth lettered in silver, approximately 116 pp., in a first-issue priced jacket (price present at the flap) with a photograph of Wiesel in glasses at the rear flap. Hill & Wang's own "First American Edition" wording implies a prior English-language edition and the London issue is generally treated as the first in English, but I could not establish month-level precedence between London and New York against two independent authorities — so both are described here and neither is ranked.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented for the 1956 Yiddish or the 1958 French in the sources consulted. For English, the 1960 Hill & Wang and MacGibbon & Kee printings are the collected ones; the ubiquitous Avon and Bantam paperbacks are later reprints. The most common trap is the 2006 Hill & Wang edition (Oprah's Book Club): it is a wholly new translation by Marion Wiesel, a "first thus" of a different text, not a reprint of the 1960 Rodway translation. La Nuit remains in print from Minuit in pocket format with modern ISBNs; those are not the 1958 edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Night (Un di Velt Hot Geshvign / La Nuit)* by Elie Wiesel a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/night-un-di-velt-hot-geshvign-la-nuit
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.