Doctor Zhivago

The world first is the Italian Feltrinelli edition (Milan, 15 November 1957; slugged 'prima edizione mondiale in lingua italiana'), which precedes everything. The 1958 Russian-language editions do NOT precede it and are routinely misidentified as firsts: the CIA-sponsored Mouton printing (The Hague, 1958, put out over Feltrinelli's imprint and handed to Soviet visitors at the Brussels World's Fair) and Feltrinelli's own authorised Russian edition (1958-59). A French edition also preceded the English. For the first English, the UK Collins & Harvill 1958 is customarily cited as the first English-language printing; the US Pantheon 1958 followed closely the same year (both autumn 1958).