# Is "Tender Is the Night" by F. Scott Fitzgerald a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1934) is identified by: The first printing carries the Scribner's capital 'A' together with the publisher's seal on the copyright page beneath the 1934 imprint. The US Scribner's 1934 'A' first is the true first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The first printing carries the Scribner's capital 'A' together with the publisher's seal on the copyright page beneath the 1934 imprint
- The book was published April 12, 1934, after serialization in Scribner's Magazine in four installments (January through April 1934)
- Bound in publisher's dark green cloth (linen-grain), the front board blind-stamped and the spine lettered in gilt
- The first-issue dust jacket bears blurbs by T. S. Eliot, H. L. Mencken, and Paul Rosenfeld on the front flap and retains its printed price; the Eliot blurb was famously used without his prior permission
- This first-issue text precedes the later posthumous reordering of the narrative into chronological sequence
- Publisher imprint reads Charles Scribner's Sons
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | F. Scott Fitzgerald |
| Publisher | Charles Scribner's Sons |
| Year | 1934 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The first printing carries the Scribner's capital 'A' together with the publisher's seal on the copyright page beneath the 1934 imprint |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
The first printing carries the Scribner's capital 'A' together with the publisher's seal on the copyright page beneath the 1934 imprint. The book was published April 12, 1934, after serialization in Scribner's Magazine in four installments (January through April 1934). Bound in publisher's dark green cloth (linen-grain), the front board blind-stamped and the spine lettered in gilt. The first-issue dust jacket bears blurbs by T. S. Eliot, H. L. Mencken, and Paul Rosenfeld on the front flap and retains its printed price; the Eliot blurb was famously used without his prior permission. This first-issue text precedes the later posthumous reordering of the narrative into chronological sequence.

## Is this the true first?
The US Scribner's 1934 'A' first is the true first. There is no signed or limited trade issue; the jacketed 'A' first is the landmark, and the original first-issue jacket with the Eliot/Mencken/Rosenfeld blurbs is the desirable state.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Later Scribner's printings drop the 'A' and the seal from the copyright page; book-club copies are blind-stamped, lack the 'A' and seal, and do not carry the priced first-issue jacket.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Tender Is the Night* by F. Scott Fitzgerald a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/tender-is-the-night
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.