# Is "The Baron in the Trees" by Italo Calvino a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino (Random House, 1959) is identified by: Translated by Archibald Colquhoun. First English of Il barone rampante (Einaudi, 1957).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Translated by Archibald Colquhoun
- The US Random House first edition states First Printing on the copyright page
- A UK Collins edition also appeared in 1959
- Publisher imprint reads Random House
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Italo Calvino |
| Publisher | Random House |
| Year | 1959 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Translated by Archibald Colquhoun |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
Translated by Archibald Colquhoun. The US Random House first edition states First Printing on the copyright page. A UK Collins edition also appeared in 1959.

## Is this the true first?
First English of Il barone rampante (Einaudi, 1957). Both the US Random House and UK Collins editions are dated 1959 and appear essentially concurrent; precedence between them is not firmly established, so neither should be asserted as the sole true first without a copy-in-hand comparison.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
A Random House book-club issue exists; it is identified by the absence of a price on the jacket and a blind-embossed dot to the rear board, not by any stamp on the true first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Baron in the Trees* by Italo Calvino a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-baron-in-the-trees
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-03.