# Is "The Tin Drum" by Günter Grass a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Tin Drum by Günter Grass (Hermann Luchterhand Verlag, 1959) is identified by: German 'Die Blechtrommel,' Hermann Luchterhand Verlag, Neuwied, 1959, is the true first. True first is the German Luchterhand 1959.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- German 'Die Blechtrommel,' Hermann Luchterhand Verlag, Neuwied, 1959, is the true first
- The first English-language editions both appeared in 1962: Pantheon Books, New York (first American), and Secker & Warburg, London (first British), both in Ralph Manheim's translation
- The Pantheon first American is bound in red cloth with gilt spine lettering and black decoration to the front board and spine, with a black topstain; its jacket carries the author's own cover artwork and should retain its printed price on the front flap
- Publisher imprint reads Hermann Luchterhand Verlag
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Günter Grass |
| Publisher | Hermann Luchterhand Verlag |
| Year | 1959 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | German 'Die Blechtrommel,' Hermann Luchterhand Verlag, Neuwied, 1959, is the true first |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
German 'Die Blechtrommel,' Hermann Luchterhand Verlag, Neuwied, 1959, is the true first. The first English-language editions both appeared in 1962: Pantheon Books, New York (first American), and Secker & Warburg, London (first British), both in Ralph Manheim's translation. The Pantheon first American is bound in red cloth with gilt spine lettering and black decoration to the front board and spine, with a black topstain; its jacket carries the author's own cover artwork and should retain its printed price on the front flap.

## Is this the true first?
True first is the German Luchterhand 1959. First in English is 1962, with the New York (Pantheon) first American and the London (Secker & Warburg) first British both dated 1962 in Manheim's translation; the sources consulted establish no firm month-level precedence between them, so identify by the imprint on the title and copyright pages rather than by date. A few dealers catalogue the Pantheon as 1963; the copyright page and the majority of first-printing copies are 1962, so treat a 1963 date as a later state.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Later German printings state a higher 'Auflage' and may use a redesigned jacket; book-club editions (Bertelsmann / Deutscher Bücherbund) are separate, often unpriced and bearing club imprints. The Manheim English translation is not the world-first — the German 1959 Luchterhand is.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Tin Drum* by Günter Grass a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-tin-drum
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.