# Is "Peer Gynt (Peer Gynt: Et dramatisk Digt)" by Henrik Ibsen a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Peer Gynt (Peer Gynt: Et dramatisk Digt) by Henrik Ibsen (Gyldendalske Boghandel, 1867) is identified by: Published 14 November 1867 in a first impression of 1,250 copies. The Danish-Norwegian original is the true first: Copenhagen, Gyldendalske Boghandel (F.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Published 14 November 1867 in a first impression of 1,250 copies
- Collates 4 + 259 pp.: 17 sheets folded in octavo, leaf ca
- 110 x 170 mm, signature marks 1-17 carrying the line "Henrik Ibsen : Peer Gynt." on pp
- 1, 17, 33, 49, 65, 81, 97, 113, 129, 145, 161, 177, 193, 209, 225, 241 and 257; the last sheet has only two leaves
- Text is set in antikva (roman), the title in centred majuscules, the divisional title and cast list in a different face from the text; the title leaf (blank verso) and the following divisional title with the cast list on the verso are NOT included in the pagination, because Hegel deliberately held the preliminary leaves back until Ibsen had finished sending copy
- Issued in green printed wrappers (Schiøtz & Ringstrom 2006, 168, cited by HIS); most surviving copies are rebound and show only traces of the green wrapper in the inner margins of the title leaf and last leaf
- Publisher imprint reads Gyldendalske Boghandel

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Henrik Ibsen |
| Publisher | Gyldendalske Boghandel |
| Year | 1867 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | Published 14 November 1867 in a first impression of 1,250 copies |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Published 14 November 1867 in a first impression of 1,250 copies. Collates 4 + 259 pp.: 17 sheets folded in octavo, leaf ca. 110 x 170 mm, signature marks 1-17 carrying the line "Henrik Ibsen : Peer Gynt." on pp. 1, 17, 33, 49, 65, 81, 97, 113, 129, 145, 161, 177, 193, 209, 225, 241 and 257; the last sheet has only two leaves. Text is set in antikva (roman), the title in centred majuscules, the divisional title and cast list in a different face from the text; the title leaf (blank verso) and the following divisional title with the cast list on the verso are NOT included in the pagination, because Hegel deliberately held the preliminary leaves back until Ibsen had finished sending copy. Issued in green printed wrappers (Schiøtz & Ringstrom 2006, 168, cited by HIS); most surviving copies are rebound and show only traces of the green wrapper in the inner margins of the title leaf and last leaf. CRITICAL: the second impression of 2,000 copies was begun on publication day and issued 28 November 1867, and it is also dated 1867 — the 1867 date alone does not establish first-impression status. Per Henrik Ibsens skrifter about 20 new errors entered the second impression; first-impression readings recorded by HIS include p. 25 "nejer" (second impression: "neje"), p. 96 "Han" (second: "Hun"), and p. 159 "Du" (second: "Da"). TRAP: the errata Ibsen himself reported to Hegel on 23 November 1867 — p. 80 "(En Stemme i Morket)" set in parentheses in small type instead of as a normal heading, p. 236 "hverve" for "kverve", the dash placed before rather than after "om" in the Button-moulder's speech on the last page, and the stop before the dash on p. 247 — arrived too late to be taken into the second impression and were left standing, so these errors appear in BOTH 1867 impressions and do NOT identify a first.

## Is this the true first?
The Danish-Norwegian original is the true first: Copenhagen, Gyldendalske Boghandel (F. Hegel), 14 November 1867 — Gyldendal had been Ibsen's publisher since Brand (1866), so a Copenhagen imprint on a Norwegian-language text is correct and not a translation. The census claim is confirmed. No English edition contends: Peer Gynt first appeared in English only in 1892, in William and Charles Archer's translation, twenty-five years after the original, so every English-language Peer Gynt is a translation and never a first edition of the work. Where an English text is collected, the Archer 1892 translation is the edition of record.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club apparatus exists for an 1867 Copenhagen imprint. The reprint tells are the sequence of authorized editions in Ibsen's lifetime recorded by HIS — 2nd 1867, 3rd 1874, 4th 1876, 5th 1881, 6th 1885, 7th 1886, 8th 1891, 9th 1893, 10th 1896, Folkeutgave 3 1898, 11th 1899, 12th 1903, 13th 1906. The 3rd edition (September 1874) is instantly distinguishable because it adopts the reformed orthography Ibsen used from 1870 following the 1869 Stockholm spelling congress. HIS also records unauthorized American piracies printed by J. Anderson, Chicago, in 1894 and 1902. The frequently offered 1936 Arthur Rackham-illustrated Peer Gynt is an illustrated English "first thus", not a first edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Peer Gynt (Peer Gynt: Et dramatisk Digt)* by Henrik Ibsen a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/peer-gynt-peer-gynt-et-dramatisk-digt
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.