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

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Stranger by Albert Camus (Éditions Gallimard, Paris, 1942) is identified by: French true first: L'Étranger, Éditions Gallimard, Paris — printed 21 April 1942, on sale from June 1942. CORRECTION to the census.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- French true first: L'Étranger, Éditions Gallimard, Paris — printed 21 April 1942, on sale from June 1942
- The ordinary edition was 4,400 copies, deliberately divided: 400 service de presse (review) copies, 500 copies with no edition statement, and 3,500 copies carrying FALSE edition statements running from 'deuxième édition' through 'huitième édition' on the lower wrapper — Gallimard split the single printing into eight fictitious 'editions' of 550 copies each
- A wrapper reading, say, '5e édition' is therefore still first-printing sheets and is not a demotion
- No grands papiers (large-paper/deluxe) copies were produced — paper was scarce in 1942 and Camus was then unknown — so any claimed deluxe issue of the first is a red flag
- Service de presse copies, not for sale, carry no price on the lower wrapper; trade copies have the price present
- First edition in English: The Outsider, translated by Stuart Gilbert with an introduction by Cyril Connolly, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1946 — grey-green textured cloth with gilt-stamped spine titles, priced jacket (price present at the flap)
- Publisher imprint reads Éditions Gallimard, Paris

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Albert Camus |
| Publisher | Éditions Gallimard, Paris |
| Year | 1942 |
| True first | British edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | French true first: L'Étranger, Éditions Gallimard, Paris — printed 21 April 1942, on sale from June 1942 |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
French true first: L'Étranger, Éditions Gallimard, Paris — printed 21 April 1942, on sale from June 1942. The ordinary edition was 4,400 copies, deliberately divided: 400 service de presse (review) copies, 500 copies with no edition statement, and 3,500 copies carrying FALSE edition statements running from 'deuxième édition' through 'huitième édition' on the lower wrapper — Gallimard split the single printing into eight fictitious 'editions' of 550 copies each. A wrapper reading, say, '5e édition' is therefore still first-printing sheets and is not a demotion. No grands papiers (large-paper/deluxe) copies were produced — paper was scarce in 1942 and Camus was then unknown — so any claimed deluxe issue of the first is a red flag. Service de presse copies, not for sale, carry no price on the lower wrapper; trade copies have the price present. First edition in English: The Outsider, translated by Stuart Gilbert with an introduction by Cyril Connolly, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1946 — grey-green textured cloth with gilt-stamped spine titles, priced jacket (price present at the flap). First American: The Stranger, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1946, same Gilbert translation but WITHOUT the Connolly introduction.

## Is this the true first?
CORRECTION to the census. The French Gallimard 1942 true first is confirmed, but the census claim that 'Knopf is generally given priority' in English is wrong: Hamish Hamilton (London, 1946) published Gilbert's translation FIRST, as The Outsider, and precedes Alfred A. Knopf (New York, 1946). Hamish Hamilton changed Gilbert's title to The Outsider — considering it more striking, and to avoid collision with Maria Kuncewiczowa's Cudzoziemka, then newly published in London as The Stranger; Knopf had already typeset the book under Gilbert's original title when told of the change and kept The Stranger, which is why the British and American titles have diverged ever since. Both are collected: Hamish Hamilton as the first in English (and the only one with the Connolly introduction), Knopf as the first American. Matthew Ward's 1988 Knopf translation is 'first thus'.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented for the 1942 Gallimard. The trap on the French first is the inverse of the usual one — the wrapper 'edition' statements are fictitious and do not demote a copy; judge by the 1942 Gallimard imprint and the April 1942 printing, and note that copies without any edition statement (500) and the service de presse copies (400) are the least-common states. For the English, the reprint tells are straightforward: later Hamish Hamilton and Knopf printings state their printing, and the Vintage/Penguin paperbacks are reprints. A copy titled The Stranger cannot be the first English edition; a copy titled The Outsider cannot be the first American.

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