# Is "The Bald Soprano (La Cantatrice chauve)" by Eugène Ionesco a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Bald Soprano (La Cantatrice chauve) by Eugène Ionesco (Éditions Arcanes, Paris, 1953) is identified by: CENSUS CORRECTED — the claimed Gallimard 'Theatre I' (1954) is not the first. The French original has precedence, but NOT the edition the census names.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- CENSUS CORRECTED — the claimed Gallimard 'Theatre I'
- is not the first
- The true first book edition is titled 'Theatre' (Paris, Editions Arcanes, 1953), the first volume of the 'Locus Solus' collection directed by Michel Laclos, containing four plays — La Cantatrice chauve, La Lecon, Jacques ou la soumission, Le Salon de l'automobile — with a preface by Jacques Lemarchand
- A collector looking for a book titled 'La Cantatrice chauve' will never find the first: the volume is titled 'Theatre'
- Collation: 158 pp., approx
- 14.5 x 19.5 cm, paperbound (broche), on Teka paper, numbered
- Publisher imprint reads Éditions Arcanes, Paris

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Eugène Ionesco |
| Publisher | Éditions Arcanes, Paris |
| Year | 1953 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | CENSUS CORRECTED — the claimed Gallimard 'Theatre I' |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
CENSUS CORRECTED — the claimed Gallimard 'Theatre I' (1954) is not the first. The true first book edition is titled 'Theatre' (Paris, Editions Arcanes, 1953), the first volume of the 'Locus Solus' collection directed by Michel Laclos, containing four plays — La Cantatrice chauve, La Lecon, Jacques ou la soumission, Le Salon de l'automobile — with a preface by Jacques Lemarchand. A collector looking for a book titled 'La Cantatrice chauve' will never find the first: the volume is titled 'Theatre'. Collation: 158 pp., approx. 14.5 x 19.5 cm, paperbound (broche), on Teka paper, numbered. Identification rests on the Arcanes imprint, the 1953 date, the Locus Solus series statement, and the justification leaf — there is no printing statement or number line. CONFLICT ON THE LIMITATION, stated plainly: trade descriptions disagree on the breakdown. One gives 2,020 numbered copies on Teka; another gives 2,000 numbered, nos. 1-50 signed by Ionesco and nos. 51-2000 on Teka; another gives 1,950 on Teka after 50 signed and 20 out-of-commerce. Because the reported breakdowns do not reconcile, treat the justification leaf in the copy at hand as the authority and do not repeat a figure from a listing. Pre-original: the text was first printed serially in the Cahiers du College de 'Pataphysique, Paris, 1952 — no. 7 and nos. the printed price, reported as scenes 1-7 in no. 7 and scenes 8-11 in no. the printed price. The play had been premiered 11 May 1950 at the Theatre des Noctambules, Paris, directed by Nicolas Bataille, two years before any printing.

## Is this the true first?
The French original has precedence, but NOT the edition the census names. Order of appearance: (1) Cahiers du College de 'Pataphysique nos. 7 and the printed price, Paris, 1952 — first appearance in print of any kind, periodical; (2) 'Theatre', Editions Arcanes, Paris, 1953 — the true first book edition; (3) Gallimard, 'Theatre I', Paris, 1954 — the second book appearance and a classic 'first thus' trap, since it is the edition everyone cites and the one the collected Gallimard text descends from. Flag it as first thus, not first. First English: both 1958, and both collected, so name both — Grove Press, New York, 'Four Plays' (translated by Donald M. Allen), where the play is titled 'The Bald Soprano'; and John Calder, London, 1958, in Donald Watson's translation, where it is titled 'The Bald Prima Donna'. The English title therefore differs by country, which is itself an identification point. Month-precedence between the two 1958 editions was not established in the sources consulted; the Calder 1958 date rests on a single source and should be verified against a copy. The celebrated Massin/Cohen typographic edition (Gallimard, 1964) is a designed first thus, not a first edition.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented. The tells are all 'first thus' rather than club reprints, and they are the reason this title is so often misdescribed: any copy lacking the Arcanes justification/numbering is not the original; Gallimard's Theatre I (1954) and its very many later printings, the Folio reissues, the Massin illustrated edition (1964), and the Grove and Calder translations are every one of them subsequent. A copy whose title page reads 'Gallimard' is by that fact not the first edition, whatever its date.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Bald Soprano (La Cantatrice chauve)* by Eugène Ionesco a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-bald-soprano-la-cantatrice-chauve
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.