# Is "Six Characters in Search of an Author (Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore)" by Luigi Pirandello a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Six Characters in Search of an Author (Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore) by Luigi Pirandello (R. Bemporad & Figlio, Editori, 1921) is identified by: The true first is the 1921 Bemporad small octavo (approx. The true first edition is the Italian: Florence, R.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The true first is the 1921 Bemporad small octavo (approx
- 193 x 135 mm), issued as volume III of Pirandello's "Maschere nude" series under the full title "Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore
- Commedia da fare," collating to 141 pages
- It is a paperback in original printed wrappers, the front cover lettered in black and red within a typographic/ornamental border; the text was printed by the Stabilimenti Grafici A. Vallecchi (Florence)
- Identify it by the title page dated 1921, the R. Bemporad & Figlio imprint, and the "Maschere nude" series designation (vol
- III) with no later series or reprint statement; the standard bibliographic citation is Gambetti-Vezzosi p
- Publisher imprint reads R. Bemporad & Figlio, Editori

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Luigi Pirandello |
| Publisher | R. Bemporad & Figlio, Editori |
| Year | 1921 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The true first is the 1921 Bemporad small octavo (approx |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
The true first is the 1921 Bemporad small octavo (approx. 193 x 135 mm), issued as volume III of Pirandello's "Maschere nude" series under the full title "Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore. Commedia da fare," collating to 141 pages. It is a paperback in original printed wrappers, the front cover lettered in black and red within a typographic/ornamental border; the text was printed by the Stabilimenti Grafici A. Vallecchi (Florence). Identify it by the title page dated 1921, the R. Bemporad & Figlio imprint, and the "Maschere nude" series designation (vol. III) with no later series or reprint statement; the standard bibliographic citation is Gambetti-Vezzosi p. 691. The fragile wrappers are almost always toned, foxed, or chipped, so a sound copy in the original wrappers is the key. Finer press-variant/issue points within the single 1921 printing are not documented in the trade, so identification rests on the imprint, date, series number, pagination, and original wrappers rather than on internal state points.

## Is this the true first?
The true first edition is the Italian: Florence, R. Bemporad & Figlio, 1921 (Maschere nude III), published the same year as the play's tumultuous premiere at the Teatro Valle in Rome in May 1921 (sources give the date as 9 or 10 May). This 1921 text is NOT the version most readers know: Pirandello heavily revised the play for the 1925 Bemporad edition, adding his now-famous author's preface ("Come e perche ho scritto Sei personaggi...," first printed in Comoedia, Jan. 1925), the use of masks, and a changed ending. The 1921 first thus lacks the preface and the revised finale, which is the decisive point distinguishing the true first from the far commoner 1925 revised edition and all later texts. The first English-language book appearance is "Three Plays" (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1922), containing "Six Characters in Search of an Author" translated by Edward Storer (from the 1921 text, with the author's approval), alongside "Henry IV" and "Right You Are (If You Think So!)"; the first English staged production was at the Kingsway Theatre, London, in February 1922.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The confusion here is textual, not a Book-of-the-Month-style book-club reprint: the ubiquitous copies are the 1925 revised Bemporad edition (and its many later Mondadori printings after Mondadori absorbed the Pirandello list), which add the preface, masks, and new ending and are frequently mistaken for or sold loosely as "first edition." Any copy containing the author's preface is 1925 or later, never the 1921 first. On the English side, the 1922 Dutton "Three Plays" was reprinted repeatedly and the Storer translation was widely reissued in later selections, so a Storer text alone does not prove the 1922 first printing; verify the 1922 Dutton title page and first-printing imprint. No notable dedicated book-club edition of the Italian first is recorded.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Six Characters in Search of an Author (Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore)* by Luigi Pirandello a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/six-characters-in-search-of-an-author
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.