# Is "Odd John" by Olaf Stapledon a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Odd John by Olaf Stapledon (Methuen & Co., London, 1935) is identified by: Full title 'Odd John: A Story Between Jest and Earnest'. Census claim confirmed.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Full title 'Odd John: A Story Between Jest and Earnest'
- First edition, published 3 October 1935; small octavo, bound in blue cloth (light blue cloth with the spine lettering in dark blue)
- Jacket art by Eric Fraser — the celebrated 'odd' jacket
- The eight-page publisher's catalogue at the rear exists in two states, dated '535' (May 1935) and '835' (August 1935)
- CURREY ASSIGNS NO PRIORITY between them: both were bound into first-issue copies published on the same day, so a '535' catalogue is not evidence of an earlier book, and dealer language calling '535' the 'true first issue' overstates the point (the inference that the 535 sheets were inserted first is reasonable but is not a documented priority)
- Currey additionally records later issues made up from remainder sheets of the same first printing and bound in wrappers with the front panel of the dust jacket mounted on the upper wrapper (Currey binding C; Currey issue F is the sixth issue and the second of the two issues in wraps)
- Publisher imprint reads Methuen & Co., London

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Olaf Stapledon |
| Publisher | Methuen & Co., London |
| Year | 1935 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Full title 'Odd John: A Story Between Jest and Earnest' |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Full title 'Odd John: A Story Between Jest and Earnest'. First edition, published 3 October 1935; small octavo, bound in blue cloth (light blue cloth with the spine lettering in dark blue). Jacket art by Eric Fraser — the celebrated 'odd' jacket. The eight-page publisher's catalogue at the rear exists in two states, dated '535' (May 1935) and '835' (August 1935). CURREY ASSIGNS NO PRIORITY between them: both were bound into first-issue copies published on the same day, so a '535' catalogue is not evidence of an earlier book, and dealer language calling '535' the 'true first issue' overstates the point (the inference that the 535 sheets were inserted first is reasonable but is not a documented priority). Currey additionally records later issues made up from remainder sheets of the same first printing and bound in wrappers with the front panel of the dust jacket mounted on the upper wrapper (Currey binding C; Currey issue F is the sixth issue and the second of the two issues in wraps). Priced jacket: price present at the flap; wartime price stickers are found on some jacket flaps.

## Is this the true first?
Census claim confirmed. Methuen (London, 1935) is the true first edition. The first American edition is E. P. Dutton & Co. (New York, 1936), collating [i-iv] v [vi] 1-282. BOTH are collected and must be named separately in any catalogue — the Methuen as the true first, the Dutton as the first American. There is no foreign-language original; the book was written in English.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition of the Methuen printing is documented. The trap here is the wrappered issues: softcover copies made up from surplus/remainder sheets of the first printing and issued some years after the hardback, with the jacket's front panel pasted to the upper wrapper. These contain genuine first-printing sheets and are routinely offered as 'first edition' — accurate as to the sheets, but they are later issues in wraps, not the 1935 first edition in blue cloth.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Odd John* by Olaf Stapledon a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/odd-john
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.