# Is "The Time of the Hero" by Mario Vargas Llosa (trans. Lysander Kemp) a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Time of the Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa (trans. Lysander Kemp) (Grove Press, New York, 1966) is identified by: First English edition. True first is the Spanish 'La ciudad y los perros' (Seix Barral, Barcelona, 1963).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First English edition
- Grove Press, New York, 1966, cloth in dust jacket, translated by Lysander Kemp
- Translation of 'La ciudad y los perros.' This was Vargas Llosa's first book translated into English
- First American edition, first printing
- Publisher imprint reads Grove Press, New York
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Mario Vargas Llosa (trans. Lysander Kemp) |
| Publisher | Grove Press, New York |
| Year | 1966 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First English edition |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First English edition. Grove Press, New York, 1966, cloth in dust jacket, translated by Lysander Kemp. Translation of 'La ciudad y los perros.' This was Vargas Llosa's first book translated into English. First American edition, first printing.

## Is this the true first?
True first is the Spanish 'La ciudad y los perros' (Seix Barral, Barcelona, 1963). The 1966 Grove Press is the first English edition; it precedes the UK Jonathan Cape edition, which appeared in 1967, so the US Grove edition is unambiguously the first English.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The Grove Evergreen paperback is not the cloth first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Time of the Hero* by Mario Vargas Llosa (trans. Lysander Kemp) a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-time-of-the-hero
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.