# Is "The Cherry Orchard (Vishnyovyi sad)" by Anton Chekhov a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Cherry Orchard (Vishnyovyi sad) by Anton Chekhov (Znanie, 1904) is identified by: First printed in 'Sbornik tovarishchestva "Znanie" za 1903 god' (Collection of the Znanie Association for the Year 1903), Book/volume II, St. The census is right on both counts: the Russian original precedes all translations, and within 1904 the Znanie almanac precedes the Marks separate edition.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First printed in 'Sbornik tovarishchestva "Znanie" za 1903 god' (Collection of the Znanie Association for the Year 1903), Book/volume II, St
- Petersburg, 1904, with the play occupying pages 29–105 of a 324-page small-octavo volume issued in original grey printed wrappers; the almanac also carries work by Kuprin, Skitalets, Chirikov and Iushkevich
- Note the dating trap on the wrapper and title: the collection is styled 'for the year 1903' but was published in 1904 — the official publication date was 1 June 1904, and the play had premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre on 17 January 1904
- Publication in a charitable almanac (benefiting indigent women medical students in Petersburg) was the device by which Chekhov evaded his exclusive contract with A. F. Marks, which carried a heavy per-signature penalty and restricted new work to periodicals or charitable books
- The separate book-form edition followed later in 1904: A. F. Marks, St
- Petersburg, 62 pages plus an advertisement leaf, in original printed wrappers with an art-nouveau design; it introduces textual changes and corrections and is correctly described as the first separate edition, not the first printing
- Publisher imprint reads Znanie

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Anton Chekhov |
| Publisher | Znanie |
| Year | 1904 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | First printed in 'Sbornik tovarishchestva "Znanie" za 1903 god' (Collection of the Znanie Association for the Year 1903), Book/volume II, St |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First printed in 'Sbornik tovarishchestva "Znanie" za 1903 god' (Collection of the Znanie Association for the Year 1903), Book/volume II, St. Petersburg, 1904, with the play occupying pages 29–105 of a 324-page small-octavo volume issued in original grey printed wrappers; the almanac also carries work by Kuprin, Skitalets, Chirikov and Iushkevich. Note the dating trap on the wrapper and title: the collection is styled 'for the year 1903' but was published in 1904 — the official publication date was 1 June 1904, and the play had premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre on 17 January 1904. Publication in a charitable almanac (benefiting indigent women medical students in Petersburg) was the device by which Chekhov evaded his exclusive contract with A. F. Marks, which carried a heavy per-signature penalty and restricted new work to periodicals or charitable books. The separate book-form edition followed later in 1904: A. F. Marks, St. Petersburg, 62 pages plus an advertisement leaf, in original printed wrappers with an art-nouveau design; it introduces textual changes and corrections and is correctly described as the first separate edition, not the first printing.

## Is this the true first?
The census is right on both counts: the Russian original precedes all translations, and within 1904 the Znanie almanac precedes the Marks separate edition. Both are collected and the distinction must always be stated — the Znanie Book II is the first appearance in print and the earliest text; the Marks is the first edition in book form and carries a revised text. Neither is a translation and both are 1904. On the English side the census's '1908–1912' range is right but should name the two editions: the first English translation is 'The Cherry Garden', translated by Max S. Mandell, New Haven: Yale Courant, 1908 — the first American edition and first appearance in English, in publisher's black cloth lettered gilt on the upper board, with a folding facsimile letter from the actress Alla Nazimova endorsing the translation — while George Calderon's translation in 'Two Plays by Tchekhof' (London: Grant Richards, 1912; printed by the Riverside Press, Edinburgh) is the first British publication.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
None documented for the 1904 Russian printings. The volume marketplace hazard is translation-level first-thus: the modern English reprint series and commissioned versions (Dover Thrift, Penguin, Nick Hern, and the many 'a new version by' acting texts) are each a first thus of their own translation rather than any edition of the work, and are routinely listed as 'first edition'.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Cherry Orchard (Vishnyovyi sad)* by Anton Chekhov a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-cherry-orchard-vishnyovyi-sad
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.