# Is "The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'" by Joseph Conrad a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Nigger of the 'Narcissus' by Joseph Conrad (William Heinemann, 1898) is identified by: First English edition: Heinemann, London, title page dated 1898 though actually published in early December 1897; 259 pp. The census claim needs correction on precedence.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First English edition: Heinemann, London, title page dated 1898 though actually published in early December 1897
- 259 pp. plus [4] pp. advertisements and a 16-page Heinemann 'Autumn Announcements' catalogue dated 1897, which is the earliest state of the advertisement catalogue
- Bound in dark slate/grey cloth stamped in gilt, with a gilt life-preserver (lifebuoy) device enclosing the title on the upper cover and the publisher's blind stamp on the rear board (Cagle A3
- Supino A3.7.0, binding state A)
- The first carries no impression statement; later Heinemann impressions add a 'New Impression 1898' line to the copyright page, which is the reliable reprint tell
- One widely repeated sub-point should be treated as unsettled rather than diagnostic: copies vary between a Heinemann imprint at the spine foot in uniform 3mm capitals and one with a larger, non-uniform initial 'H', and dealers directly contradict each other on which is earlier — Sumner & Stillman states no definite priority has been established
- Publisher imprint reads William Heinemann

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Joseph Conrad |
| Publisher | William Heinemann |
| Year | 1898 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First English edition: Heinemann, London, title page dated 1898 though actually published in early December 1897 |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
First English edition: Heinemann, London, title page dated 1898 though actually published in early December 1897; 259 pp. plus [4] pp. advertisements and a 16-page Heinemann 'Autumn Announcements' catalogue dated 1897, which is the earliest state of the advertisement catalogue. Bound in dark slate/grey cloth stamped in gilt, with a gilt life-preserver (lifebuoy) device enclosing the title on the upper cover and the publisher's blind stamp on the rear board (Cagle A3; Wise 5; Supino A3.7.0, binding state A). The first carries no impression statement; later Heinemann impressions add a 'New Impression 1898' line to the copyright page, which is the reliable reprint tell. One widely repeated sub-point should be treated as unsettled rather than diagnostic: copies vary between a Heinemann imprint at the spine foot in uniform 3mm capitals and one with a larger, non-uniform initial 'H', and dealers directly contradict each other on which is earlier — Sumner & Stillman states no definite priority has been established.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim needs correction on precedence. The American edition PRECEDES the English by a matter of days: Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, published it in late November 1897 under the substituted title 'The Children of the Sea: A Tale of the Forecastle', ahead of Heinemann's London publication in early December 1897. Both are collected and both should be named — the Dodd, Mead is the first edition by date, while the Heinemann carries Conrad's intended title and is the first English edition. The Dodd, Mead has its own trap: roughly 1,000 copies were printed in late 1897 and, because publication straddled the season, the printers produced BOTH 1897 and 1898 title pages. Copies with the 1897 title page are the first issue (Cagle A3b(1)); the 1898-dated copies were distributed in spring 1898 and listed in Publishers Weekly on 12 March (Cagle A3b(2), second issue). It is bound in original pictorial light blue-grey mottled cloth.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
For the Dodd, Mead: all copies without a date on the front of the title leaf are merely reprints — this is the decisive reprint tell. For the Heinemann: later impressions state 'New Impression 1898' on the copyright page. Conrad's later collected editions, and the separately issued 1914 'Preface' printing, are 'first thus' and not first editions of the novel.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'* by Joseph Conrad a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-nigger-of-the-narcissus
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.