# Is "We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin (published as Eugene Zamiatin) a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (published as Eugene Zamiatin) (E. P. Dutton & Co., 1924) is identified by: The census claim holds: the Dutton New York printing of 1924, in Gregory Zilboorg's translation, is the world first edition in any language, and Zilboorg's name appears on the title page. There is no UK-vs-US precedence contest at first publication: Dutton (New York, 1924) precedes every other appearance, including the Russian original, which the Soviet censor suppressed.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The census claim holds: the Dutton New York printing of 1924, in Gregory Zilboorg's translation, is the world first edition in any language, and Zilboorg's name appears on the title page
- Dutton's pre-1929 practice is the identification test — a first edition carries the same date on the title page as on the copyright page with no additional printings listed; any "Second Printing" or later notice on the copyright page rules the copy out, and there is no number line
- ABAA and specialist dealers describe the first-printing binding consistently as publisher's black ribbed cloth, ruled and stamped in gilt, octavo, with the spine gilt very often faded or dulled on surviving copies
- The pictorial dust jacket, in the Russian avant-garde manner, is exceedingly scarce and copies almost invariably appear without it; facsimile jackets are routinely supplied, so any jacket present should be checked for reproduction (modern paper, uniform gloss, no toning to the verso)
- Publisher imprint reads E. P. Dutton & Co.
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Yevgeny Zamyatin (published as Eugene Zamiatin) |
| Publisher | E. P. Dutton & Co. |
| Year | 1924 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The census claim holds: the Dutton New York printing of 1924, in Gregory Zilboorg's translation, is the world first edition in any… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
The census claim holds: the Dutton New York printing of 1924, in Gregory Zilboorg's translation, is the world first edition in any language, and Zilboorg's name appears on the title page. Dutton's pre-1929 practice is the identification test — a first edition carries the same date on the title page as on the copyright page with no additional printings listed; any "Second Printing" or later notice on the copyright page rules the copy out, and there is no number line. ABAA and specialist dealers describe the first-printing binding consistently as publisher's black ribbed cloth, ruled and stamped in gilt, octavo, with the spine gilt very often faded or dulled on surviving copies. The pictorial dust jacket, in the Russian avant-garde manner, is exceedingly scarce and copies almost invariably appear without it; facsimile jackets are routinely supplied, so any jacket present should be checked for reproduction (modern paper, uniform gloss, no toning to the verso).

## Is this the true first?
There is no UK-vs-US precedence contest at first publication: Dutton (New York, 1924) precedes every other appearance, including the Russian original, which the Soviet censor suppressed. A Czech translation ran in the Brno newspaper Lidove noviny in 1927; a reverse-translation back into Russian from that Czech text ran in the emigre journal Volya Rossii (Prague) the same year, without Zamyatin's approval and only in part. The first full Russian book text is the Chekhov Publishing House edition (New York, 1952), set from a galley proof that reached New York via the author's widow and Gleb Struve; the novel was not published in the Soviet Union until 1988. The first British book publication is Jonathan Cape (London, 1970), which introduced Bernard Guilbert Guerney's new translation — a first thus in a new text, not the first edition. The 1924 Dutton is the one edition collected as the first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The principal trap is Dutton's own later reissue of the Zilboorg text (New York, 1952), which shares publisher and translator with the first and is frequently offered as though it were the 1924 sheet — the title-page date and the copyright-page printing notice settle it. The Mirra Ginsburg translation (Viking, 1972) and the Cape/Guerney text (1970) are separate translations, not reprints of the first. No book-club issue of the 1924 Dutton edition is documented in the sources consulted.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *We* by Yevgeny Zamyatin (published as Eugene Zamiatin) a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/we
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.