# Is "The Counterfeiters (Les Faux-monnayeurs)" by André Gide a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Counterfeiters (Les Faux-monnayeurs) by André Gide (Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française / Gallimard, 1925) is identified by: The true first is the 1925 Paris NRF/Gallimard printing, the ordinary trade issue appearing in the Collection blanche cream printed wrappers and running to 503 pages with an achevé d'imprimer leaf dated 1925 at the rear. The true first edition is the French Les Faux-monnayeurs, Paris, Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française (Gallimard), 1925 — note the book is dated 1925 but was not placed on sale until February 1926, a well-known quirk dealers routinely cite.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The true first is the 1925 Paris NRF/Gallimard printing, the ordinary trade issue appearing in the Collection blanche cream printed wrappers and running to 503 pages with an achevé d'imprimer leaf dated 1925 at the rear
- The premium tirage de tête consists of 121 copies réimposés (re-set) in a taller in-quarto tellière format on vergé (laid) Lafuma-Navarre paper — of which 112 were reserved for the bibliophiles de la Nouvelle Revue Française — each individually numbered; these grand-papier copies are the summit of the edition
- Below them, the standard first-printing large-paper sheets are the 1,244 numbered copies on pur fil Lafuma-Navarre, above the unnumbered trade run
- First-issue copies should show no later printing statement or later achevé d'imprimer; because this was the only work Gide himself called a "roman," the 1925 NRF wrappers with the correct 1925 achevé d'imprimer are the point that matters most
- Publisher imprint reads Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française / Gallimard
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | André Gide |
| Publisher | Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française / Gallimard |
| Year | 1925 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The true first is the 1925 Paris NRF/Gallimard printing, the ordinary trade issue appearing in the Collection blanche cream printed… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The true first is the 1925 Paris NRF/Gallimard printing, the ordinary trade issue appearing in the Collection blanche cream printed wrappers and running to 503 pages with an achevé d'imprimer leaf dated 1925 at the rear. The premium tirage de tête consists of 121 copies réimposés (re-set) in a taller in-quarto tellière format on vergé (laid) Lafuma-Navarre paper — of which 112 were reserved for the bibliophiles de la Nouvelle Revue Française — each individually numbered; these grand-papier copies are the summit of the edition. Below them, the standard first-printing large-paper sheets are the 1,244 numbered copies on pur fil Lafuma-Navarre, above the unnumbered trade run. First-issue copies should show no later printing statement or later achevé d'imprimer; because this was the only work Gide himself called a "roman," the 1925 NRF wrappers with the correct 1925 achevé d'imprimer are the point that matters most.

## Is this the true first?
The true first edition is the French Les Faux-monnayeurs, Paris, Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française (Gallimard), 1925 — note the book is dated 1925 but was not placed on sale until February 1926, a well-known quirk dealers routinely cite. The first English-language edition is The Counterfeiters, translated by Dorothy Bussy (whose rendering remains the standard English text), published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1927, stating "First American Edition" in publisher's cloth (blue cloth, roughly 365 pp.). The Cassell London edition did not follow until 1931, so the 1927 Knopf is the first edition in English worldwide, not merely the first American.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No prominent U.S. book-club (BOMC-type) edition is a common trap for this title; the practical hazards are different. Beware the many later NRF/Gallimard reprints from the same setting that lack a printing statement or carry a later achevé d'imprimer — these are routinely mis-listed as 1925 first editions. Do not confuse the ordinary 1925 wrappered issue with the 121 réimposé grand-papier copies (taller in-4 tellière on Lafuma-Navarre). On the English side, later Knopf printings and the Modern Library issue (also dated 1931), plus Vintage/Penguin reprints of the Bussy translation, are frequently offered as firsts — only the 1927 Knopf stating "First American Edition" qualifies.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Counterfeiters (Les Faux-monnayeurs)* by André Gide a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-counterfeiters
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.