# Is "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (Macmillan and Co., 1898) is identified by: The novella first appeared in book form within the two-story collection The Two Magics, published almost simultaneously in October 1898 by Macmillan and Co. Bibliographers differ on strict priority between the near-simultaneous October 1898 Macmillan (New York) and Heinemann (London) printings of The Two Magics; both are treated as first editions of their respective countries, and no definitive consensus fixes which imprint actually reached the public first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The novella first appeared in book form within the two-story collection The Two Magics, published almost simultaneously in October 1898 by Macmillan and Co. in New York and William Heinemann in London, with the two printings textually very close
- The Heinemann London edition, limited to 1,500 copies including colonial and export copies, is bound in decorated blue cloth with four irises stamped in blind on the front panel, title stamped in gold on the front, spine lettered in gold, and the publisher's monogram blind-stamped on the rear panel; domestic copies have a title page printed in red and black and dated in Roman numerals
- The Macmillan New York edition, limited to 2,250 copies, is bound in maroon cloth with gilt spine lettering and a gilt top edge, collating 393 pages of text followed by three pages of advertisements for other James titles
- Publisher imprint reads Macmillan and Co.
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Henry James |
| Publisher | Macmillan and Co. |
| Year | 1898 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The novella first appeared in book form within the two-story collection The Two Magics, published almost simultaneously in October 1898 by… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
The novella first appeared in book form within the two-story collection The Two Magics, published almost simultaneously in October 1898 by Macmillan and Co. in New York and William Heinemann in London, with the two printings textually very close. The Heinemann London edition, limited to 1,500 copies including colonial and export copies, is bound in decorated blue cloth with four irises stamped in blind on the front panel, title stamped in gold on the front, spine lettered in gold, and the publisher's monogram blind-stamped on the rear panel; domestic copies have a title page printed in red and black and dated in Roman numerals. The Macmillan New York edition, limited to 2,250 copies, is bound in maroon cloth with gilt spine lettering and a gilt top edge, collating 393 pages of text followed by three pages of advertisements for other James titles.

## Is this the true first?
Bibliographers differ on strict priority between the near-simultaneous October 1898 Macmillan (New York) and Heinemann (London) printings of The Two Magics; both are treated as first editions of their respective countries, and no definitive consensus fixes which imprint actually reached the public first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Twentieth-century single-volume "Turn of the Screw only" editions separate the novella from its original companion piece, Covering End, and are later, differently structured books unconnected to the 1898 Two Magics first edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Turn of the Screw* by Henry James a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-turn-of-the-screw
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.