Six Characters in Search of an Author (Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore)

The true first edition is the Italian: Florence, R. Bemporad & Figlio, 1921 (Maschere nude III), published the same year as the play's tumultuous premiere at the Teatro Valle in Rome in May 1921 (sources give the date as 9 or 10 May). This 1921 text is NOT the version most readers know: Pirandello heavily revised the play for the 1925 Bemporad edition, adding his now-famous author's preface ("Come e perche ho scritto Sei personaggi...," first printed in Comoedia, Jan. 1925), the use of masks, and a changed ending. The 1921 first thus lacks the preface and the revised finale, which is the decisive point distinguishing the true first from the far commoner 1925 revised edition and all later texts. The first English-language book appearance is "Three Plays" (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1922), containing "Six Characters in Search of an Author" translated by Edward Storer (from the 1921 text, with the author's approval), alongside "Henry IV" and "Right You Are (If You Think So!)"; the first English staged production was at the Kingsway Theatre, London, in February 1922.