# Is "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest" by Stieg Larsson a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest by Stieg Larsson (Norstedts, 2007) is identified by: For the first English edition (MacLehose Press, London, 2009, hardback): first printing is identified by a complete descending number line retaining the 1 on the copyright page, consistent with the graded MacLehose Millennium printings documented by independent AbeBooks dealers (second printing drops to '...3 2', third to '...4 3', and so on). The census claim is upheld.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- For the first English edition (MacLehose Press, London, 2009, hardback): first printing is identified by a complete descending number line retaining the 1 on the copyright page, consistent with the graded MacLehose Millennium printings documented by independent AbeBooks dealers (second printing drops to '...3 2', third to '...4 3', and so on)
- Physical points corroborated by Second Story Books, which catalogues the copy verbatim as 'London, UK: MacLehose Press, 2009
- First UK Edition, First Printing
- Octavo, 602 pages' with a dark evergreen spine bearing white and silver gilt lettering; translation credited to Reg Keeland, the pseudonym of Steven T. Murray
- Rare Book Cellar independently catalogues the London MacLehose 2009 issue as first edition, first printing, hardcover, 8vo
- Issued in a priced jacket with the price present at the flap
- Publisher imprint reads Norstedts

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Stieg Larsson |
| Publisher | Norstedts |
| Year | 2007 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | For the first English edition (MacLehose Press, London, 2009, hardback): first printing is identified by a complete descending number line… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
For the first English edition (MacLehose Press, London, 2009, hardback): first printing is identified by a complete descending number line retaining the 1 on the copyright page, consistent with the graded MacLehose Millennium printings documented by independent AbeBooks dealers (second printing drops to '...3 2', third to '...4 3', and so on). Physical points corroborated by Second Story Books, which catalogues the copy verbatim as 'London, UK: MacLehose Press, 2009. First UK Edition, First Printing. Octavo, 602 pages' with a dark evergreen spine bearing white and silver gilt lettering; translation credited to Reg Keeland, the pseudonym of Steven T. Murray. Rare Book Cellar independently catalogues the London MacLehose 2009 issue as first edition, first printing, hardcover, 8vo. Issued in a priced jacket with the price present at the flap. For the Norstedts 2007 Swedish original: no first-printing point can be documented, as Swedish publishing has no standard for indicating upplaga/tryckning; the 2007 date alone does not establish a first printing.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim is upheld. Norstedts, Stockholm, 2007 (Luftslottet som sprängdes) is the original-language true first, published posthumously. In English, the UK MacLehose Press/Quercus hardback of October 2009 precedes the US Alfred A. Knopf edition, published 25 May 2010 — a gap of roughly seven months, wider and less contestable than on the sibling volume. Christopher MacLehose held the global English-language rights through MacLehose Press, an imprint of Quercus, and Knopf acquired the US rights. Both the Swedish original and the UK MacLehose first English are collected and should be named as distinct; the Knopf 2010 is the first American edition, not the true first. Third volume of the Millennium trilogy.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented in the sources consulted. The documented traps are the 2010 MacLehose deluxe boxed set, which contains REVISED hardback texts with maps plus a fourth essay volume and is a separate first impression of that set rather than the first edition of this novel, and the post-film Quercus/Vintage paperback reissues carrying the original dates. On the UK first, a number line no longer retaining the 1 indicates a later printing despite the 2009 date.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest* by Stieg Larsson a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-girl-who-kicked-the-hornets-nest
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.