# Is "The Garden Party and Other Stories" by Katherine Mansfield a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield (Constable, 1922) is identified by: London: Constable, 1922 — Kirkpatrick A5a, with 'First published 1922' on the verso and no later-printing statement. Constable, London, 1922 is the collected true first (Kirkpatrick A5a), and the ABAA and auction record treat it as such.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- London: Constable, 1922 — Kirkpatrick A5a, with 'First published 1922' on the verso and no later-printing statement
- The textual point is the uncorrected misprint 'sposition' for 'position' in the last line of p.103, cited in the Christie's cataloguing; dealers also report errors at pp.134 and 241
- Binding state is the more important discrimination: the issued trade binding, as normally found, is blue cloth with the lettering stamped in ochre/orange
- Kirkpatrick records approximately 25 copies in a rejected publisher's trial binding of greenish-blue cloth stamped in navy blue — the navy stamping did not show well enough, so the lettering on the issued binding was changed to ochre
- The trial binding, not the ochre-lettered cloth, is the earlier state; most trial copies went out to travellers or were shipped to Australia, and Michael Sadleir of Constable reportedly told collector Paul Rassam that only eleven or twelve such binder's samples were supplied
- Publisher imprint reads Constable
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Katherine Mansfield |
| Publisher | Constable |
| Year | 1922 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | London: Constable, 1922 — Kirkpatrick A5a, with 'First published 1922' on the verso and no later-printing statement |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
London: Constable, 1922 — Kirkpatrick A5a, with 'First published 1922' on the verso and no later-printing statement. The textual point is the uncorrected misprint 'sposition' for 'position' in the last line of p.103, cited in the Christie's cataloguing; dealers also report errors at pp.134 and 241. Binding state is the more important discrimination: the issued trade binding, as normally found, is blue cloth with the lettering stamped in ochre/orange. Kirkpatrick records approximately 25 copies in a rejected publisher's trial binding of greenish-blue cloth stamped in navy blue — the navy stamping did not show well enough, so the lettering on the issued binding was changed to ochre. The trial binding, not the ochre-lettered cloth, is the earlier state; most trial copies went out to travellers or were shipped to Australia, and Michael Sadleir of Constable reportedly told collector Paul Rassam that only eleven or twelve such binder's samples were supplied.

## Is this the true first?
Constable, London, 1922 is the collected true first (Kirkpatrick A5a), and the ABAA and auction record treat it as such. Alfred A. Knopf issued the American edition in New York the same year, with a second printing following in July 1922 and further printings through 1923; the Knopf is the first American and is collected in its own right. Caveat on the census claim: the sources consulted do not settle the exact interval between the two, and some describe near-simultaneous London/New York publication in 1922. Kirkpatrick's A5a designation and dealer practice place Constable first, but 'precedes Knopf' should be read as bibliographic precedence rather than a documented gap in days.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Knopf's New York printings after the first are stated on the verso, reaching an eighth by December 1923. The chief 'first thus' trap is the illustrated edition with Marie Laurencin's colour lithographs, limited to 1,200 numbered copies (Kirkpatrick D6) — a first illustrated edition, not the first edition, and its D-number should never be quoted for a Constable trade copy. Modern Library reprints also circulate. No book-club issue tells for the Constable were documented in the sources consulted.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Garden Party and Other Stories* by Katherine Mansfield a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-garden-party-and-other-stories
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.