# Is "The Soft Machine" by William S. Burroughs a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs (The Olympia Press, 1961) is identified by: Olympia Press, Paris, Traveller's Companion Series No. Olympia Paris (1961) is the true world first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Olympia Press, Paris, Traveller's Companion Series No
- 88, 1961, issued in the series' green printed paper wrappers with the wrapper design by Brion Gysin (the book was issued in wrappers only, not in a dust jacket)
- The first issue is identified by the original '15' New Francs price printed on the lower rear wrapper
- Later copies of the same sheets were overstamped 'New Price NF 18' over that original price following the January 1960 revaluation of the franc, so a clean, unstamped '15 NF' rear wrapper is the first-issue point
- The text runs to about 182 pages in fifty short chapters, colour-coded into four 'Units' — a heavily fragmented arrangement unique to this Olympia setting
- Publisher imprint reads The Olympia Press
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | William S. Burroughs |
| Publisher | The Olympia Press |
| Year | 1961 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | Olympia Press, Paris, Traveller's Companion Series No |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Olympia Press, Paris, Traveller's Companion Series No. 88, 1961, issued in the series' green printed paper wrappers with the wrapper design by Brion Gysin (the book was issued in wrappers only, not in a dust jacket). The first issue is identified by the original '15' New Francs price printed on the lower rear wrapper. Later copies of the same sheets were overstamped 'New Price NF 18' over that original price following the January 1960 revaluation of the franc, so a clean, unstamped '15 NF' rear wrapper is the first-issue point. The text runs to about 182 pages in fifty short chapters, colour-coded into four 'Units' — a heavily fragmented arrangement unique to this Olympia setting.

## Is this the true first?
Olympia Paris (1961) is the true world first. The US Grove edition (1966) and UK Calder edition are substantially REVISED texts — true 'first thus' rather than reprints, since Burroughs heavily reworked the cut-up material. The Olympia 1961 four-Unit text differs markedly from the reorganized later versions and has never been reissued in that original form.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book club. The major trap is that the Grove (1966) and Calder editions are revised, not identical reprints; the Olympia No. 88 1961 in green wrappers with the unstamped '15 NF' rear price is the only true first of the original text.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Soft Machine* by William S. Burroughs a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-soft-machine
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.