# Is "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (edited by J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon)" by J.R.R. Tolkien (editor, with E. V. Gordon) a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (edited by J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon) by J.R.R. Tolkien (editor, with E. V. Gordon) (Clarendon Press, 1925) is identified by: The 1925 first impression carries no impression or reprint statement — later Clarendon issues add a line reading in substance 'First published 1925; reprinted with corrections 1930, 1936', so the presence of any reprint line rules the copy out. UK only.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The 1925 first impression carries no impression or reprint statement — later Clarendon issues add a line reading in substance 'First published 1925; reprinted with corrections 1930, 1936', so the presence of any reprint line rules the copy out
- Bound in original green cloth, spine lettered in gilt, covers ruled in gilt and blind with a gilt axe device stamped on the front cover, edges untrimmed (copies are often found partially unopened)
- The publisher's errata leaf is tipped in after p. vi as issued, and the frontispiece and plate reproducing the sole surviving manuscript (British Library) are protected by two fragile tissue guards — both errata and guards are called for
- Octavo, approximately 211-212 pp.; the editors argued Clarendon past its requested 160-page limit to accommodate Tolkien's glossary
- A first-impression print run of 2,500 copies is the figure reported in the Hammond & Anderson descriptive bibliography and repeated by dealers; copies survive mostly in used, annotated classroom condition
- Publisher imprint reads Clarendon Press
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | J.R.R. Tolkien (editor, with E. V. Gordon) |
| Publisher | Clarendon Press |
| Year | 1925 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The 1925 first impression carries no impression or reprint statement — later Clarendon issues add a line reading in substance 'First… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The 1925 first impression carries no impression or reprint statement — later Clarendon issues add a line reading in substance 'First published 1925; reprinted with corrections 1930, 1936', so the presence of any reprint line rules the copy out. Bound in original green cloth, spine lettered in gilt, covers ruled in gilt and blind with a gilt axe device stamped on the front cover, edges untrimmed (copies are often found partially unopened). The publisher's errata leaf is tipped in after p. vi as issued, and the frontispiece and plate reproducing the sole surviving manuscript (British Library) are protected by two fragile tissue guards — both errata and guards are called for. Octavo, approximately 211-212 pp.; the editors argued Clarendon past its requested 160-page limit to accommodate Tolkien's glossary. A first-impression print run of 2,500 copies is the figure reported in the Hammond & Anderson descriptive bibliography and repeated by dealers; copies survive mostly in used, annotated classroom condition.

## Is this the true first?
UK only. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1925 is the sole true first — there is no separately set US first edition. Two 'first thus' traps: (1) the revised second edition prepared by Norman Davis (Clarendon Press, 1967) reuses the Tolkien-Gordon text but is a later edition, not this book; (2) Tolkien's Modern English verse translation, published as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo (Allen & Unwin, London, 1975; Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1975), is an entirely different work and is frequently mis-catalogued as the '1925 Tolkien Gawain.' This 1925 scholarly edition is Tolkien's collectible book debut.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition exists for an academic Clarendon text. The reprint tells are printed rather than physical: any copy whose title-page verso records a 1930, 1936 or later corrected impression is a reprint, as is any copy lacking the tipped-in errata leaf where the leaf has not simply been removed. Later Clarendon/OUP impressions were also issued in variant cloth and, latterly, in wrappers.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (edited by J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon)* by J.R.R. Tolkien (editor, with E. V. Gordon) a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight-edited-by-j-r-r-tolkien-and
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.