# Is "The Nick Adams Stories" by Ernest Hemingway a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1972) is identified by: The first printing carries the Scribner code 'A-4.72 (V)' on the copyright page — the 'A' denoting the first edition, 4.72 the April 1972 production date, and the parenthetical letter the manufacturer/binding code. US Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1972 is the true first and the edition collected — the census claim stands.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The first printing carries the Scribner code 'A-4.72 (V)' on the copyright page — the 'A' denoting the first edition, 4.72 the April 1972 production date, and the parenthetical letter the manufacturer/binding code
- This refines the census claim: the point is not a bare 'A' but the full code, and its absence (or a code with a different date/letter) marks a later printing
- Scribner's house practice since 1930 has been an 'A' on the copyright page, sometimes with the Scribner seal and sometimes with a month/year and manufacturer code, which corroborates the form of this code
- Bound in blue cloth, title in gilt on the spine, with a facsimile Hemingway signature stamped in gilt on the front cover, in the publisher's priced jacket (price present at the front flap)
- Publisher imprint reads Charles Scribner's Sons, New York
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Ernest Hemingway |
| Publisher | Charles Scribner's Sons, New York |
| Year | 1972 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The first printing carries the Scribner code 'A-4.72 (V)' on the copyright page — the 'A' denoting the first edition, 4.72 the April 1972… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The first printing carries the Scribner code 'A-4.72 (V)' on the copyright page — the 'A' denoting the first edition, 4.72 the April 1972 production date, and the parenthetical letter the manufacturer/binding code. This refines the census claim: the point is not a bare 'A' but the full code, and its absence (or a code with a different date/letter) marks a later printing. Scribner's house practice since 1930 has been an 'A' on the copyright page, sometimes with the Scribner seal and sometimes with a month/year and manufacturer code, which corroborates the form of this code. Bound in blue cloth, title in gilt on the spine, with a facsimile Hemingway signature stamped in gilt on the front cover, in the publisher's priced jacket (price present at the front flap).

## Is this the true first?
US Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1972 is the true first and the edition collected — the census claim stands. The volume gathers 24 stories and sketches, eight of them previously unpublished, and appeared a decade after Hemingway's death. No contemporaneous British edition is documented in the sources consulted; the census claim of 'no UK counterpart' is consistent with what was found, but this is an absence of evidence rather than a positive bibliographical finding, and no UK-precedence question arises in any case.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is specifically documented for this title in the sources consulted. Generally, Scribner book-club copies do not carry the copyright-page 'A' code and are typically blind-stamped on the rear board with an unpriced jacket; a copy lacking 'A-4.72 (V)' is not the first printing whatever else it shows. The Bantam paperback and later Scribner reissues are reprints.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Nick Adams Stories* by Ernest Hemingway a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-nick-adams-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.