Murphy

The census claim is confirmed: the English original, Routledge, London, 1938, is the true first. Beckett's own French translation — made with unacknowledged assistance from Alfred Péron — followed from Éditions Bordas, Paris, 1947, as the first volume in the "Les Imaginaires" series, and the first American edition is Grove Press, New York, 1957. There is no competing English-language edition before 1957, so precedence is not contested.