# Is "The Tartar Steppe" by Dino Buzzati a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati (Rizzoli & C. Editori, Milan–Rome, 1940) is identified by: The true first is Il deserto dei Tartari, Rizzoli & C. Italian true first: Rizzoli, Milan–Rome, 1940.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The true first is Il deserto dei Tartari, Rizzoli & C. Editori, Milano–Roma, 1940, and it is a landmark of Italian twentieth-century collecting: it inaugurated the series 'Il Sofà delle Muse' directed by Leo Longanesi, standing as number 1 in that collection
- The first printing was finished at the Rizzoli & C. presses in Milan on 25 April 1940 — the finito di stampare date is the primary identification point, as Rizzoli used no edition statement or number line
- Format is 16° (roughly 193 x 130 mm), 277 pages plus three unnumbered leaves
- Two simultaneous issues exist and both are contemporary: a cloth issue in full ochre linen with maroon relief lettering to boards and spine, and a wrappers (brossura) issue; both were supplied with the same illustrated photographic dust jacket, black-and-white with the title in red to the front panel, the author's photograph and biography to the first flap and a mini-catalogue of the first four Longanesi series titles to the second flap
- The jacket carries a printed price at the flap, and the cloth and wrappers issues were issued at different printed prices, so a jacket must match its binding
- Per the Gambetti–Vezzosi bibliography (Repertorio, 2007) the cloth issue is the rarer of the two
- Publisher imprint reads Rizzoli & C. Editori, Milan–Rome

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Dino Buzzati |
| Publisher | Rizzoli & C. Editori, Milan–Rome |
| Year | 1940 |
| True first | British edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The true first is Il deserto dei Tartari, Rizzoli & C. Editori, Milano–Roma, 1940, and it is a landmark of Italian twentieth-century… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The true first is Il deserto dei Tartari, Rizzoli & C. Editori, Milano–Roma, 1940, and it is a landmark of Italian twentieth-century collecting: it inaugurated the series 'Il Sofà delle Muse' directed by Leo Longanesi, standing as number 1 in that collection. The first printing was finished at the Rizzoli & C. presses in Milan on 25 April 1940 — the finito di stampare date is the primary identification point, as Rizzoli used no edition statement or number line. Format is 16° (roughly 193 x 130 mm), 277 pages plus three unnumbered leaves. Two simultaneous issues exist and both are contemporary: a cloth issue in full ochre linen with maroon relief lettering to boards and spine, and a wrappers (brossura) issue; both were supplied with the same illustrated photographic dust jacket, black-and-white with the title in red to the front panel, the author's photograph and biography to the first flap and a mini-catalogue of the first four Longanesi series titles to the second flap. The jacket carries a printed price at the flap, and the cloth and wrappers issues were issued at different printed prices, so a jacket must match its binding. Per the Gambetti–Vezzosi bibliography (Repertorio, 2007) the cloth issue is the rarer of the two.

## Is this the true first?
Italian true first: Rizzoli, Milan–Rome, 1940. The first English translation is Stuart C. Hood's, published in 1952 by Secker & Warburg, London, and Farrar, Straus and Young, New York. Precedence between the two is not established: the translation's setting was made and printed in Great Britain by William Clowes and Sons of London and Beccles, which is suggestive of British priority (and of the US issue possibly using imported sheets), but no source consulted states which appeared first, so both 1952 issues should be treated as collected and precedence left open. 'First thus' trap: the Lawrence Venuti translation (2023) is a new text, not a reissue of the Hood first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented for the 1940 Rizzoli first. The chief later-edition tell is publisher rather than printing: Buzzati's novel was subsequently taken up by Mondadori, so any Mondadori imprint is by definition a later edition, never the first. Later Rizzoli (BUR) paperbacks are separable by series and ISBN.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Tartar Steppe* by Dino Buzzati a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-tartar-steppe
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.