# Is "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (Heinemann, 1963) is identified by: True first: published under the pseudonym 'Victoria Lucas,' William Heinemann, London, 14 January 1963 — the title page and copyright page read 'Victoria Lucas,' not Sylvia Plath. UK Heinemann 1963 under 'Victoria Lucas' is the true first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- True first: published under the pseudonym 'Victoria Lucas,' William Heinemann, London, 14 January 1963 — the title page and copyright page read 'Victoria Lucas,' not Sylvia Plath
- Octavo, bound in publisher's black boards (variously described as cloth or cloth-grained paper), the spine lettered in gilt
- The pictorial first-issue dust jacket, designed by Thomas Simmonds, should retain its printed price on the front flap; price-clipped jackets are common and the jacket is the great rarity
- The trade printing was small, generally reported at about 2,000 copies, and the published first-edition text differs from the scarce uncorrected proof at some seventy points
- Publisher imprint reads Heinemann
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Sylvia Plath |
| Publisher | Heinemann |
| Year | 1963 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | True first: published under the pseudonym 'Victoria Lucas,' William Heinemann, London, 14 January 1963 — the title page and copyright page… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
True first: published under the pseudonym 'Victoria Lucas,' William Heinemann, London, 14 January 1963 — the title page and copyright page read 'Victoria Lucas,' not Sylvia Plath. Octavo, bound in publisher's black boards (variously described as cloth or cloth-grained paper), the spine lettered in gilt. The pictorial first-issue dust jacket, designed by Thomas Simmonds, should retain its printed price on the front flap; price-clipped jackets are common and the jacket is the great rarity. The trade printing was small, generally reported at about 2,000 copies, and the published first-edition text differs from the scarce uncorrected proof at some seventy points.

## Is this the true first?
UK Heinemann 1963 under 'Victoria Lucas' is the true first. The first US edition (Harper & Row, 1971), published under Plath's real name eight years later, is a separate, later first. The 'Victoria Lucas' Heinemann first is the landmark and is very scarce in the dust jacket.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
There is no book-club 'first' to confuse here; the trap is the name on the title page. Any copy crediting 'Sylvia Plath' is a later edition — the US Harper & Row 1971 or a later UK issue under her own name — not the true first. Only the 'Victoria Lucas' Heinemann 1963 (first impression, with no later-printing statement on the verso) is the genuine first edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Bell Jar* by Sylvia Plath a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-bell-jar
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.