# Is "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas" by Gertrude Stein a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein (Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1933) is identified by: First edition, first printing: 'First Edition' is stated on the copyright page — that statement is the identification, and its absence marks a later Harcourt printing. US Harcourt, Brace, New York, 1933 is the accepted true first and the collected edition.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, first printing: 'First Edition' is stated on the copyright page — that statement is the identification, and its absence marks a later Harcourt printing
- Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York, 1933; octavo, approximately 310 pp
- Bound in publisher's blue to blue-grey cloth stamped in silver, with 'A rose is a rose is a rose is' stamped to form a small circle on the front board
- Illustrated with a frontispiece after a photograph by Man Ray (Stein at her desk, Toklas in the doorway) plus 14 full-page plates and one facsimile leaf
- Jacket should be priced at the flap and is scarce; dealers consistently note it is usually found heavily worn
- Publisher imprint reads Harcourt, Brace and Company
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Gertrude Stein |
| Publisher | Harcourt, Brace and Company |
| Year | 1933 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, first printing: 'First Edition' is stated on the copyright page — that statement is the identification, and its absence… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
First edition, first printing: 'First Edition' is stated on the copyright page — that statement is the identification, and its absence marks a later Harcourt printing. Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York, 1933; octavo, approximately 310 pp. Bound in publisher's blue to blue-grey cloth stamped in silver, with 'A rose is a rose is a rose is' stamped to form a small circle on the front board. Illustrated with a frontispiece after a photograph by Man Ray (Stein at her desk, Toklas in the doorway) plus 14 full-page plates and one facsimile leaf. Jacket should be priced at the flap and is scarce; dealers consistently note it is usually found heavily worn.

## Is this the true first?
US Harcourt, Brace, New York, 1933 is the accepted true first and the collected edition. John Lane, The Bodley Head, London, published the first English edition the same year; the exact Bodley Head month could not be established from the sources consulted, so the census phrase 'narrowly precedes' is softened here — the American edition is the collected first, but the interval is not documented in these sources. The Atlantic Monthly printed roughly sixty per cent of the text in four installments in 1933, preceding both in print, but as a serial appearance rather than a book edition.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Later Harcourt printings drop the 'First Edition' statement from the copyright page while otherwise resembling the first — check the statement before anything else. Subsequent reprint editions and modern trade reissues are 'first thus' traps. No specific book-club issue of the 1933 Harcourt printing is documented in the sources consulted.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas* by Gertrude Stein a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-autobiography-of-alice-b-toklas
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.