# Is "The Saga of Gösta Berling (Gösta Berlings saga)" by Selma Lagerlöf a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Saga of Gösta Berling (Gösta Berlings saga) by Selma Lagerlöf (Frithiof Hellberg, 1891) is identified by: The true first is the 1891 Stockholm printing issued by Frithiof (Fritiof) Hellbergs förlag in two parts, "Del 1 / Del 2" (collation [IV]+287 pp. The true first edition is the original Swedish "Gösta Berlings saga," Frithiof Hellberg, Stockholm, 1891, in two parts — this is what serious Lagerlöf collectors pursue.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The true first is the 1891 Stockholm printing issued by Frithiof (Fritiof) Hellbergs förlag in two parts, "Del 1 / Del 2" (collation [IV]+287 pp. and [IV]+296 pp., octavo), with a map (of the fictional Lövsjö härad in Värmland) bound in the first part
- It carries the 1891 Hellberg imprint — Hellberg being publisher of the magazine Idun, whose summer-1890 prize competition the book grew out of — and no later edition/printing statement ("upplaga")
- The most decisive point is the edition statement itself: Lagerlöf revised the text for the 1895 second edition ("Andra upplagan," changes documented by Litteraturbanken), so a genuine first is the unrevised 1891 "Originalupplagan" with no "andra upplagan / ny upplaga" line on the title page
- The original publisher's binding was plain black card covers; surviving copies are very often rebound in later half-morocco or half-calf, and the map is easily lacking and should be verified as present
- Publisher imprint reads Frithiof Hellberg
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Selma Lagerlöf |
| Publisher | Frithiof Hellberg |
| Year | 1891 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The true first is the 1891 Stockholm printing issued by Frithiof (Fritiof) Hellbergs förlag in two parts, "Del 1 / Del 2" (collation… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The true first is the 1891 Stockholm printing issued by Frithiof (Fritiof) Hellbergs förlag in two parts, "Del 1 / Del 2" (collation [IV]+287 pp. and [IV]+296 pp., octavo), with a map (of the fictional Lövsjö härad in Värmland) bound in the first part. It carries the 1891 Hellberg imprint — Hellberg being publisher of the magazine Idun, whose summer-1890 prize competition the book grew out of — and no later edition/printing statement ("upplaga"). The most decisive point is the edition statement itself: Lagerlöf revised the text for the 1895 second edition ("Andra upplagan," changes documented by Litteraturbanken), so a genuine first is the unrevised 1891 "Originalupplagan" with no "andra upplagan / ny upplaga" line on the title page. The original publisher's binding was plain black card covers; surviving copies are very often rebound in later half-morocco or half-calf, and the map is easily lacking and should be verified as present.

## Is this the true first?
The true first edition is the original Swedish "Gösta Berlings saga," Frithiof Hellberg, Stockholm, 1891, in two parts — this is what serious Lagerlöf collectors pursue. The first English rendering is Lillie Tudeer's abridged translation, "Gösta Berling's Saga" (Chapman & Hall, London); sources conflict on its date, with Wikipedia giving 1894 and scholarly/library records (Encyclopedia.com / Dictionary of Literary Biography) giving Chapman & Hall, 1898 — treat the exact year as unsettled. A fuller translation by Pauline Bancroft Flach, "The Story of Gösta Berling," appeared in 1898 (Gay & Bird, London; Little, Brown, Boston). The Tudeer text was abridged; the American-Scandinavian Foundation reissued it in 1918 (New York; London: Humphrey Milford/OUP) with eight previously omitted chapters restored.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
There is no mass-market book-club edition of the Swedish first that is a common trap; the real confusion is between the 1891 first ("Originalupplagan") and the author-revised 1895 second edition ("Andra upplagan"), plus the many later Albert Bonniers förlag reprints (e.g., the 13th "billighetsupplaga," Bonnier, 1910) — all carry an edition statement and, from ~1900 on, the Bonnier imprint rather than Hellberg, so check for the 1891 Hellberg imprint and the two-part "Del 1 / Del 2" format with the map. On the English side, the frequently reprinted public-domain Tudeer and Flach texts (Dover 2003 and other Courier/Dover reissues, Standard Ebooks, and various print-on-demand reprints) are routinely mislisted as "first edition"; the true first English is the 1890s Chapman & Hall (Tudeer) or 1898 Gay & Bird / Little, Brown (Flach) printing, not any 20th- or the printed pricet-century reissue.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Saga of Gösta Berling (Gösta Berlings saga)* by Selma Lagerlöf a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-saga-of-g-sta-berling
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.