# Is "The Garden of Eden" by Ernest Hemingway a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Garden of Eden by Ernest Hemingway (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1986) is identified by: The first printing has "FIRST EDITION" stated on the copyright page with no printing statement beneath it — that absence is the decisive test, because Scribner carried the "First Edition" slug forward onto later printings and simply added a printing line (a copy of the fourth printing, for example, states "First Edition" and "Fourth Printing July, 1986" together). US Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1986 is the true first of this text in any form: the novel is posthumous, edited down from Hemingway's long unfinished manuscript, and no earlier edition exists in any language, so there is no original-language or prior-publication precedence question.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The first printing has "FIRST EDITION" stated on the copyright page with no printing statement beneath it — that absence is the decisive test, because Scribner carried the "First Edition" slug forward onto later printings and simply added a printing line (a copy of the fourth printing, for example, states "First Edition" and "Fourth Printing July, 1986" together)
- Bound in quarter cream cloth over brown paper-covered boards, lettered in black on the spine
- 8vo, 247 pp.; ISBN 0-684-18693-4
- The jacket reproduces Juan Gris's painting "Woman with a Basket"
- and is priced at the flap
- Any copy whose copyright page shows a printing statement below the slug is not the first printing, regardless of the slug
- Publisher imprint reads Charles Scribner's Sons, New York

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Ernest Hemingway |
| Publisher | Charles Scribner's Sons, New York |
| Year | 1986 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The first printing has "FIRST EDITION" stated on the copyright page with no printing statement beneath it — that absence is the decisive… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
The first printing has "FIRST EDITION" stated on the copyright page with no printing statement beneath it — that absence is the decisive test, because Scribner carried the "First Edition" slug forward onto later printings and simply added a printing line (a copy of the fourth printing, for example, states "First Edition" and "Fourth Printing July, 1986" together). Bound in quarter cream cloth over brown paper-covered boards, lettered in black on the spine; 8vo, 247 pp.; ISBN 0-684-18693-4. The jacket reproduces Juan Gris's painting "Woman with a Basket" (1927) and is priced at the flap. Any copy whose copyright page shows a printing statement below the slug is not the first printing, regardless of the slug.

## Is this the true first?
US Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1986 is the true first of this text in any form: the novel is posthumous, edited down from Hemingway's long unfinished manuscript, and no earlier edition exists in any language, so there is no original-language or prior-publication precedence question. The first UK edition followed from Hamish Hamilton (London) in 1987 (ISBN 0-241-11998-7) and does not compete for precedence. First-thus caution: because the published text is an editorial abridgement of a much longer manuscript, any later restored or scholarly presentation of the fuller text is a first thus of that text, not a first edition of the novel. The census claim is confirmed as stated.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Documented and common: the Book-of-the-Month Club main selection of this title was supplied from Scribner's fourth printing of July 1986 and carries the "First Edition" slug together with the added line "Fourth Printing July, 1986". This is the single most frequent misidentification for the book — buyers see the slug and stop reading. Later Scribner trade printings behave the same way, retaining the slug and adding a printing line.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Garden of Eden* by Ernest Hemingway a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-garden-of-eden
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.