# Is "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (Kurt Wolff Verlag, Leipzig, 1915) is identified by: German true first: Die Verwandlung, Kurt Wolff Verlag, Leipzig, 1915, issued as the double volume 22/23 of the series Der jüngste Tag — the series numbering on the wrapper and title is the primary identifier. The census claim is correct.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- German true first: Die Verwandlung, Kurt Wolff Verlag, Leipzig, 1915, issued as the double volume 22/23 of the series Der jüngste Tag — the series numbering on the wrapper and title is the primary identifier
- The story had already appeared in the periodical Die weissen Blätter in October 1915, so the Wolff volume is the first book appearance, published that December
- The cover carries Ottomar Starke's drawing of a man with his hands to his head before an open door
- Kafka wrote to the publisher insisting the insect itself not be drawn, and it is not depicted — any cover showing a beetle is not this edition
- The volume was issued both in cream self-wrappers with folding flaps (uncut) and in an illustrated pasteboard/cased issue with the title in red and black; both are first-edition issues
- Reported print-run figures conflict across dealer catalogues (800 vs 1,000 copies), so no figure is stated here
- Publisher imprint reads Kurt Wolff Verlag, Leipzig

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Franz Kafka |
| Publisher | Kurt Wolff Verlag, Leipzig |
| Year | 1915 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | German true first: Die Verwandlung, Kurt Wolff Verlag, Leipzig, 1915, issued as the double volume 22/23 of the series Der jüngste Tag — the… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
German true first: Die Verwandlung, Kurt Wolff Verlag, Leipzig, 1915, issued as the double volume 22/23 of the series Der jüngste Tag — the series numbering on the wrapper and title is the primary identifier. The story had already appeared in the periodical Die weissen Blätter in October 1915, so the Wolff volume is the first book appearance, published that December. The cover carries Ottomar Starke's drawing of a man with his hands to his head before an open door; Kafka wrote to the publisher insisting the insect itself not be drawn, and it is not depicted — any cover showing a beetle is not this edition. The volume was issued both in cream self-wrappers with folding flaps (uncut) and in an illustrated pasteboard/cased issue with the title in red and black; both are first-edition issues. Reported print-run figures conflict across dealer catalogues (800 vs 1,000 copies), so no figure is stated here. First separate edition in English: The Metamorphosis, translated by A.L. Lloyd, The Parton Press, London, 1937 — cloth-backed boards with a blue printed paper label on the upper board, issued in a glassine wrapper; catalogued as 'first edition in English' by Bonhams, Blackwell's and Heritage. First American: The Vanguard Press, New York, 1946, using the same Lloyd translation, with a preface by Paul Goodman and line drawings by Leslie Sherman, in black cloth with brown printed illustration and lettering, brown endpapers with black line drawings, 98 pp.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim is correct. The true first is the German Die Verwandlung (Kurt Wolff, Leipzig, 1915, Der jüngste Tag 22/23). The first separate English-language book edition is Parton Press, London, 1937 (A.L. Lloyd), which precedes the first American, The Vanguard Press, New York, 1946 (same Lloyd text) — both English-language editions are collected, the Parton as the first in English and the Vanguard as the first in America. The far more familiar Willa and Edwin Muir translation is later and is a 'first thus' trap, not a first: no Muir-translated printing of this title is a first edition in any sense.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented for the 1915 Wolff, the 1937 Parton, or the 1946 Vanguard. Reprint tells: any Kurt Wolff printing without the Der jüngste Tag 22/23 series designation, or with a later series/printing statement, is a subsequent issue. In English the traps are volume-of-collected-stories appearances and the many post-war Schocken, Vanguard reprint and paperback-series printings, all of which are later; a Vanguard copy is a first American only with the 1946 imprint and the Goodman preface/Sherman drawings.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Metamorphosis* by Franz Kafka a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-metamorphosis
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.