Happy Days

US true first: Grove Press, New York, 1961 — the census claim is confirmed on precedence, and its reasoning is sound. Beckett wrote Happy Days in English, so Grove precedes both the UK and the French, which is indeed the reverse of the Godot pattern; the world premiere was at the Cherry Lane Theatre, New York, on 17 September 1961. The first English (UK) edition is Faber and Faber, London, 1962 — publisher's red cloth, gilt titling to the spine, 48 pp., in a photographic dust jacket, and it is the first hardcover appearance of the play in any market, which makes it independently collectible alongside the Grove wrappers original; note that Wikipedia dates the Faber to 1963, but the dealer consensus (Shapero, Ulysses, James Cummins) is firmly 1962 and Wikipedia should not be followed here. Beckett's own French version, Oh les beaux jours, followed from Les Éditions de Minuit in 1963 — a translation by the author, not a competing original. Both the Grove 1961 and the Faber 1962 are collected; the Faber is catalogued in the Beckett bibliography as Federman/Fletcher 39.1, "First Edition in England."