# Is "Star Maker" by Olaf Stapledon a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon (Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1937) is identified by: Ltd., London, published 24 June 1937 (date per Harvey Satty and Curtis Smith, Olaf Stapledon: A Bibliography, reference A7.1.1.1); the copyright page reads "First published in 1937". Methuen, London, 1937 is the true first and the only original — census confirmed.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Ltd., London, published 24 June 1937 (date per Harvey Satty and Curtis Smith, Olaf Stapledon: A Bibliography, reference A7.1.1.1); the copyright page reads "First published in 1937"
- Octavo, pp. [i-iv] v-ix [x] xi-xii 1-339 [340: printer's imprint]; bound in blue cloth with the spine panel stamped in red
- Issue here is settled by the jacket rather than by the book: the first-issue jacket carries the original price at the front flap; a jacket produced for the 1938 second issue carries a different flap price; and circa-1941 examples bear a cancel price sticker referencing extra war costs
- Currey accordingly catalogues first-impression sheets in those later jackets as "first edition, first impression, later issue" — so confirm the flap state, not just the copyright page
- An advance uncorrected proof also exists, in sea green wrappers printed in black and marked "Rough Proof" on the front cover
- Publisher imprint reads Methuen & Co. Ltd.
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Olaf Stapledon |
| Publisher | Methuen & Co. Ltd. |
| Year | 1937 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Ltd., London, published 24 June 1937 (date per Harvey Satty and Curtis Smith, Olaf Stapledon: A Bibliography, reference A7.1.1.1); the… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Methuen & Co. Ltd., London, published 24 June 1937 (date per Harvey Satty and Curtis Smith, Olaf Stapledon: A Bibliography, reference A7.1.1.1); the copyright page reads "First published in 1937". Octavo, pp. [i-iv] v-ix [x] xi-xii 1-339 [340: printer's imprint]; bound in blue cloth with the spine panel stamped in red. Issue here is settled by the jacket rather than by the book: the first-issue jacket carries the original price at the front flap; a jacket produced for the 1938 second issue carries a different flap price; and circa-1941 examples bear a cancel price sticker referencing extra war costs. Currey accordingly catalogues first-impression sheets in those later jackets as "first edition, first impression, later issue" — so confirm the flap state, not just the copyright page. An advance uncorrected proof also exists, in sea green wrappers printed in black and marked "Rough Proof" on the front cover.

## Is this the true first?
Methuen, London, 1937 is the true first and the only original — census confirmed. There was no contemporaneous American edition: US publication followed only decades later (a Berkley paperback in 1961 and the Dover omnibus pairing it with Last and First Men in 1968), so no US first competes for precedence and there is no original-language question. Star Maker is the companion cornerstone to Last and First Men (Methuen, 1930) and the two are collected as a pair; only the Methuen issues are firsts.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue of the Methuen printing is documented in the sources consulted. The documented complication is issue rather than club: Methuen reissued first-impression sheets in 1938 and again during the war under jackets bearing later flap pricing, and Satty & Smith did not locate every later jacket state, so a genuine first-edition, first-impression book can legitimately sit in a demonstrably later jacket — describe book and jacket separately. Later omnibus, Dover, and paperback reprints carry their own imprints and dates.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Star Maker* by Olaf Stapledon a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/star-maker
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.