# Is "Satan in Goray" by Isaac Bashevis Singer a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Satan in Goray by Isaac Bashevis Singer (Yiddish PEN Club, Warsaw, 1935) is identified by: Der sotn in Goray was serialized in the Warsaw Yiddish literary magazine Globus between January and September 1933, then issued in book form at Warsaw in 1935 under the imprint of the Yiddish PEN Club — Singer's first book. The Yiddish Warsaw 1935 PEN Club edition is the true first in any language.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Der sotn in Goray was serialized in the Warsaw Yiddish literary magazine Globus between January and September 1933, then issued in book form at Warsaw in 1935 under the imprint of the Yiddish PEN Club — Singer's first book
- There is no formal points census for the Warsaw printing; the 1935 Warsaw title page and PEN Club imprint are themselves the identifier, and surviving copies are very scarce given the destruction of Polish Yiddish printings
- For the first English edition (Noonday Press, New York, 1955, translated from the Yiddish by Jacob Sloan with the author's help), ABAA dealers describe the first as original cloth in a brown pictorial dust jacket designed by Ellen Raskin, collating xi, [1], 239 pp, with the price present at the front flap (clipped flaps are commonly encountered)
- Note that dealer descriptions giving the Yiddish original as '1931' are in error — serialization began in 1933 and the book followed in 1935
- Publisher imprint reads Yiddish PEN Club, Warsaw
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Isaac Bashevis Singer |
| Publisher | Yiddish PEN Club, Warsaw |
| Year | 1935 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Der sotn in Goray was serialized in the Warsaw Yiddish literary magazine Globus between January and September 1933, then issued in book… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
Der sotn in Goray was serialized in the Warsaw Yiddish literary magazine Globus between January and September 1933, then issued in book form at Warsaw in 1935 under the imprint of the Yiddish PEN Club — Singer's first book. There is no formal points census for the Warsaw printing; the 1935 Warsaw title page and PEN Club imprint are themselves the identifier, and surviving copies are very scarce given the destruction of Polish Yiddish printings. For the first English edition (Noonday Press, New York, 1955, translated from the Yiddish by Jacob Sloan with the author's help), ABAA dealers describe the first as original cloth in a brown pictorial dust jacket designed by Ellen Raskin, collating xi, [1], 239 pp, with the price present at the front flap (clipped flaps are commonly encountered). Note that dealer descriptions giving the Yiddish original as '1931' are in error — serialization began in 1933 and the book followed in 1935.

## Is this the true first?
The Yiddish Warsaw 1935 PEN Club edition is the true first in any language. For English, the US precedes the UK: Noonday Press, New York, 1955 comes ahead of the first UK edition, Peter Owen, London, 1958 (the source of the later Corgi paperback). Important correction for collectors: Satan in Goray is Singer's first book but not his first book in English — The Family Moskat (Knopf, 1950) preceded it, so 'first book' language applies only to the Yiddish original.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
First-thus traps rather than book clubs dominate here. The New York 1943 Yiddish reissue reprints the novel together with four added stories under the expanded title 'Der sotn in Goray: a mayse fun fartsaytns un andere dertseylungen' — an expanded reissue, not the first. Later English Farrar, Straus and Noonday/FSG issues are reprints; one ABAA dealer records a 1958 Farrar, Straus hardback that is an apparent first paperback printing rebound into boards, which should not be taken for a hardback first. No book-club edition documented.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Satan in Goray* by Isaac Bashevis Singer a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/satan-in-goray
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.