# Is "The Children's Hour" by Lillian Hellman a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Children's Hour by Lillian Hellman (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1934) is identified by: 'First edition' is stated on the copyright page — this is unusually well attested for a play of this date: the Library of Congress catalog record for the book (LCCN 34042816) quotes the statement directly as a note, and the ABAA trade independently describes copies as 'First Edition, stated'. US only-first; the census claim is correct as to publisher, city and year.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- 'First edition' is stated on the copyright page — this is unusually well attested for a play of this date: the Library of Congress catalog record for the book (LCCN 34042816) quotes the statement directly as a note, and the ABAA trade independently describes copies as 'First Edition, stated'
- Collation per the Library of Congress: 5 preliminary leaves, pp
- 3-115, [1], 20 cm; dealers describe it as octavo, 115 pp
- Binding: tan boards stamped in maroon, with a blue spine panel lettered in white, and a brown topstain — all three elements together
- Jacket: printed and priced at the flap; jacketed copies are described in the trade as scarce, and the jacket is the element most often absent or supplied
- Hellman's first play and her first book, so there is no earlier Hellman book to confuse it with
- Publisher imprint reads Alfred A. Knopf, New York

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Lillian Hellman |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf, New York |
| Year | 1934 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | 'First edition' is stated on the copyright page — this is unusually well attested for a play of this date: the Library of Congress catalog… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
'First edition' is stated on the copyright page — this is unusually well attested for a play of this date: the Library of Congress catalog record for the book (LCCN 34042816) quotes the statement directly as a note, and the ABAA trade independently describes copies as 'First Edition, stated'. Collation per the Library of Congress: 5 preliminary leaves, pp. 3-115, [1], 20 cm; dealers describe it as octavo, 115 pp. Binding: tan boards stamped in maroon, with a blue spine panel lettered in white, and a brown topstain — all three elements together. Jacket: printed and priced at the flap; jacketed copies are described in the trade as scarce, and the jacket is the element most often absent or supplied. Hellman's first play and her first book, so there is no earlier Hellman book to confuse it with. No number line is used; the copyright-page statement is the whole of the point.

## Is this the true first?
US only-first; the census claim is correct as to publisher, city and year. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1934 is the true first. The UK edition is Hamish Hamilton, London, 1937 (127 pp.) — three years later, so no UK-precedence question arises and the London edition should never be described as a first. Only the Knopf 1934 is collected as the first edition of the work; the Hamish Hamilton is a first English edition and nothing more.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club printing is documented for the Knopf 1934. The practical tell is the copyright-page statement itself: a copy lacking the quoted 'First edition.' note is a later Knopf printing, and no binding or jacket variant substitutes for that check. The recurring misidentifications are the 1937 Hamish Hamilton (London) edition and the later collected and acting-edition reprints, all of which carry their own imprints and dates on the title page — read the imprint before the binding.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Children's Hour* by Lillian Hellman a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-childrens-hour
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.