# Is "The Glass Bead Game" by Hermann Hesse a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse (Fretz & Wasmuth Verlag, Zurich, 1943) is identified by: German true first: 'Das Glasperlenspiel,' Fretz & Wasmuth Verlag, Zürich, 1943 — published in neutral Switzerland after being refused publication in Nazi Germany. The German Swiss first (Fretz & Wasmuth, 1943) is the true first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- German true first: 'Das Glasperlenspiel,' Fretz & Wasmuth Verlag, Zürich, 1943 — published in neutral Switzerland after being refused publication in Nazi Germany
- Issued in two volumes (approximately 452 and 442 pp.) in publisher's sky-blue cloth with gilt stamping to the spine and front board and the title blocked in black on the spine
- German text, cited as Mileck 76
- The two-volume format and Zürich imprint are the first-edition tells; single-volume printings are later
- Publisher imprint reads Fretz & Wasmuth Verlag, Zurich
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Hermann Hesse |
| Publisher | Fretz & Wasmuth Verlag, Zurich |
| Year | 1943 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | German true first: 'Das Glasperlenspiel,' Fretz & Wasmuth Verlag, Zürich, 1943 — published in neutral Switzerland after being refused… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
German true first: 'Das Glasperlenspiel,' Fretz & Wasmuth Verlag, Zürich, 1943 — published in neutral Switzerland after being refused publication in Nazi Germany. Issued in two volumes (approximately 452 and 442 pp.) in publisher's sky-blue cloth with gilt stamping to the spine and front board and the title blocked in black on the spine; German text, cited as Mileck 76. The two-volume format and Zürich imprint are the first-edition tells; single-volume printings are later.

## Is this the true first?
The German Swiss first (Fretz & Wasmuth, 1943) is the true first. CENSUS CORRECTION: the first edition in English is NOT the New York Holt issue — it is the London edition, Aldus Publications Ltd (Francis Aldor), 1949, in Mervyn Savill's translation under the trap title 'Magister Ludi.' The first American edition (Henry Holt, 1949) was made up from imported British sheets and its copyright page reads 'Copyright 1949 by Francis Aldor, 2 Mount Row, London W.1' with the London printer's imprint. A later Richard & Clara Winston translation (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1969, foreword by Theodore Ziolkowski) restored the full text and is 'first thus' only — not the first English.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The 1949 Savill 'Magister Ludi' (London Aldus issue and the imported-sheets US Holt issue) and the 1969 Winston 'The Glass Bead Game (Magister Ludi)' are distinct: the 1969 is a new translation ('first edition thus'), not a reprint of 1949. Do not treat the US Holt 1949 as the true first English — it is printed on London sheets and postdates/derives from the London edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Glass Bead Game* by Hermann Hesse a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-glass-bead-game
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.