# Is "Tropic of Capricorn" by Henry Miller a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller (The Obelisk Press, 1939) is identified by: True first is the Paris Obelisk Press printing, published February 1939 — the copyright page carries that February 1939 publication statement. TRUE FIRST IS PARIS — Obelisk Press, 1939, in wrappers; the census is correct on this point, confirmed by Bauman (ABAA), biblio, and Wikipedia as a pointer.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- True first is the Paris Obelisk Press printing, published February 1939 — the copyright page carries that February 1939 publication statement
- Issued in original stiff paper wrappers, red and white, lettered in black, with a capricorn device and a sun ornament in white and a black obelisk (the Obelisk Press device) on the front panel; octavo, uncut
- The original price is printed on the backstrip and on the front and rear inside panels — a priced wrapper
- A yellow errata slip belongs with the first printing, tipped in at the title page
- Bauman and Mystery Pier both note it is frequently absent, so its absence alone does not refute a first
- Copies sold later from Obelisk's standing stock can carry an uprated price stamped on the rear free endpaper — that stamp reflects a later sale, not a later printing
- Publisher imprint reads The Obelisk Press

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Henry Miller |
| Publisher | The Obelisk Press |
| Year | 1939 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | True first is the Paris Obelisk Press printing, published February 1939 — the copyright page carries that February 1939 publication… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
True first is the Paris Obelisk Press printing, published February 1939 — the copyright page carries that February 1939 publication statement. Issued in original stiff paper wrappers, red and white, lettered in black, with a capricorn device and a sun ornament in white and a black obelisk (the Obelisk Press device) on the front panel; octavo, uncut. The original price is printed on the backstrip and on the front and rear inside panels — a priced wrapper. A yellow errata slip belongs with the first printing, tipped in at the title page; Bauman and Mystery Pier both note it is frequently absent, so its absence alone does not refute a first. Copies sold later from Obelisk's standing stock can carry an uprated price stamped on the rear free endpaper — that stamp reflects a later sale, not a later printing. NOT VERIFIED at printing level: dealer copy references a Shifreen & Jackson bibliography variant, but the available descriptions did not permit reconstruction of the full printing/variant structure, and this should not be published as a point until checked against Shifreen & Jackson directly. One ABAA dealer (Mystery Pier) misdates the Obelisk edition to 1938; February 1939 is the corroborated date.

## Is this the true first?
TRUE FIRST IS PARIS — Obelisk Press, 1939, in wrappers; the census is correct on this point, confirmed by Bauman (ABAA), biblio, and Wikipedia as a pointer. Miller wrote in English, so the Paris edition is both the true first and the first in the original language; it was banned in the US and UK and circulated by smuggling. CENSUS CLAIM CONTESTED: the assertion that the first US edition is "Grove 1961" is NOT confirmed and the sources conflict. Grove Press copies are dated 1961 and several ABAA dealers catalogue them as 1961, but Wikipedia and others state Grove actually published the novel in the US in September 1962, following the 1961 Justice Department ruling that the text was not obscene. The likeliest reconciliation is a 1961 copyright date with 1962 publication, but this could not be confirmed against two independent authorities — record the Grove year as 1961/1962, unresolved. Do not confuse this title with Tropic of Cancer, which Grove did publish in 1961.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented. The reprint tells are the Grove Press New York hardcover (green cloth in jacket, c. 346-348 pp., catalogued as the "First Authorized U.S. Edition" — authorised, and therefore by definition not the first) and the Grove paperback that followed. Any copy bearing a Grove imprint, a New York place of publication, or an ISBN is not the Paris first. The Paris first was issued only in wrappers, never in publisher's cloth: a cloth-bound copy is either the Grove edition or a later private binding of the Paris sheets. A rebound Paris copy remains a first but has lost its principal identifying surface; the wrappers' spine is commonly damaged or wholly missing.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Tropic of Capricorn* by Henry Miller a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/tropic-of-capricorn
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.