# Is "The Rebel" by Albert Camus a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Rebel by Albert Camus (Éditions Gallimard, Paris, 1951) is identified by: Census claim confirmed. French original-language true first: Gallimard, Paris, 1951 (L'Homme révolté).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The true first is L'Homme révolté, Gallimard, Paris, 1951, issued in original wrappers (broché) — no hardcover publisher's binding
- Gallimard issued a tirage de tête ahead of the ordinary copies: 45 numbered copies on Hollande (of which 5 are hors commerce), 260 numbered copies on vélin pur fil from the papeteries Lafuma-Navarre, and copies on alfa from the Papeteries du Marais; dealers also record Madagascar copies hors commerce reserved for the author
- Numbered large-paper copies carry their paper and number statement in the limitation; ordinary copies do not
- Service de presse (review) copies of the ordinary issue exist and are so marked
- For the first edition in English (Hamish Hamilton, London, 1953): the copyright page of the true first printing reads "First published in Great Britain 1953"; publisher's red cloth with gilt spine lettering, 273 pages, translated by Anthony Bower with a foreword by Sir Herbert Read; the jacket should be unclipped with the price present at the flap
- Publisher imprint reads Éditions Gallimard, Paris
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Albert Camus |
| Publisher | Éditions Gallimard, Paris |
| Year | 1951 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The true first is L'Homme révolté, Gallimard, Paris, 1951, issued in original wrappers (broché) — no hardcover publisher's binding |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Census claim confirmed. The true first is L'Homme révolté, Gallimard, Paris, 1951, issued in original wrappers (broché) — no hardcover publisher's binding. Gallimard issued a tirage de tête ahead of the ordinary copies: 45 numbered copies on Hollande (of which 5 are hors commerce), 260 numbered copies on vélin pur fil from the papeteries Lafuma-Navarre, and copies on alfa from the Papeteries du Marais; dealers also record Madagascar copies hors commerce reserved for the author. Numbered large-paper copies carry their paper and number statement in the limitation; ordinary copies do not. Service de presse (review) copies of the ordinary issue exist and are so marked. For the first edition in English (Hamish Hamilton, London, 1953): the copyright page of the true first printing reads "First published in Great Britain 1953"; publisher's red cloth with gilt spine lettering, 273 pages, translated by Anthony Bower with a foreword by Sir Herbert Read; the jacket should be unclipped with the price present at the flap.

## Is this the true first?
French original-language true first: Gallimard, Paris, 1951 (L'Homme révolté). The first edition in English is Hamish Hamilton, London, 1953 (trans. Anthony Bower, introduction by Sir Herbert Read) — the UK precedes the US. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1954 is the first American edition and is collected in its own right, but it is not the first in English and must not be catalogued as such.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented for the Gallimard 1951 or the Hamish Hamilton 1953 in the sources consulted. The Gallimard first is a wrappers issue — any hardcover 1951 copy in leather or half-binding is a later private/collector binding of the sheets, not a publisher's binding, and should be described as such.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Rebel* by Albert Camus a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-rebel
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.