False FirstsA bunch of Modern Library first printings are difficult to spot because they lack a First Edition slug (First Modern Library Edition, New Edition, First Printing, Modern Library Edition <<month, year>>, or some other catchy phrase). These are all noted in the article Stalking the Unmarked First. But there's also a group of titles that not only do have first printing slugs but also carried them beyond the initial print runs. The following table lists these potential false firsts along with indicators that let you separate the false from the real. In some cases, you only have the dust jacket to go by. (Bummer.) See the BookNotes for details. This list may not be complete. If you know of other false firsts, or if you think any part of this chart is in error, please let us know. |
| Book Title | Author | Toledano Number | True First Indicator(s) | False Slug Ever Removed? |
| Age of Innocence | Wharton | 229.1 | Spring 1943 ML list in back and inside the jacket (291 titles; includes Du Maurier, Rebecca but not Shakespeare) | Y |
| Anna Karenina | Tolstoy | 037.4 | first binding style 11 | N |
| Anthology of American Negro Literature | Misc | 163.1 | blues lyrics that appear on pages 223-227 do not show names and copyright permissions | Y |
| Art of Whistler | Pennell E/J | 150.1 | first binding style 4 | ? |
| Brothers Karamazov | Dostoyevsky | 151.1 | last sheet of the book block blank, and no blank sheets at the front | Y |
| Cass Timberlane | Lewis | 221.2 | 80 Giants listed in back (with G31 Famous Sciene-Fiction Stories but not Encyclopedia of Modern American Humor) | Y |
| Catch-22 | Heller | 375.1 | The true first was in a binding style 11. | False slug likely appears only in #14 binding |
| Complete Works | Rabelais | G065.1 | The true first is in the #G4 binding. | Y |
| Cream of the Jest | Cabell | 126.1 | Catalog dated to Fall 1925 (includes Dumas, Camille, but not Anderson, Poor White) | Y |
| Dead Souls | Gogol | 040.3 | True first is in a #11 binding | False slug appears in the #14 binding, other bindings unknown |
| Dubliners | Joyce | 124.1 | October 1926 list (has Joyce, Dubliners but not Hudson, Purple Land) | Y |
| Federalist | Misc | 139.3 | 3-line acknowledgment to the Carnegie Corporation of New York below the statement FIRST MODERN LIBRARY EDITION | Y |
| Goodbye, Columbus | Roth | 374.1 | Kent endpapers; first binding style 11 | ? |
| Human Nature and Conduct | Dewey | 173.1 | first state omits pp. 1-13 (Dewey's Introduction to the book) | Y |
| Imperial Hearst | Lundberg | 081.2 | DJ list includes Graves, I, Claudius, but not Woolf, To The Lighthouse. No other way to tell, sadly. | N |
| Jurgen | Cabell | 015.2 | Catalog dated to Spring 1934 (includes Caldwell, God’s Little Acre, but not Heyward, Porgy) | Y |
| Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti | Symonds | 049.2 | not enough information is available to determine which one is the first—see BookNotes for details | Y |
| My War with the United States | Bemelmans | 175.2 | printed on thicker paper without a list of titles inside the jacket | N |
| New Grub Street | Gissing | 125.1 | includes list of titles in the back; has 560 pages; first jacket has a Spring 1927 list (Hudson, Purple Land but not Hardy, Jude the Obscure | Y |
| Notebooks, 1935-1942 | Camus | 349.1 | first binding style 11 | ? |
| Plague | Camus | 109.2 | May 1961 ML list (has Camus, The Plague but not Mailer, Naked and the Dead; DJ shows 405 titles (NOT 403) | Y |
| Point Counter Point | Huxley | 180.1 | first binding style 5 | Y |
| Selected Writings | Irving | 240.1 | Fall 1945 titles list (Irving, Selected Writings, but not Hersey, Bell for Adano) | N |
| Selections from the Writings | Paine | 108.1 | first binding style 2 | N |
| Shock of Recognition | Misc | G083.1 | first binding style G5, no other indication | N |
| Short Novels | Tolstoy | 354.1 | True First is in an 11 binding | ? |
| Tale of Genji | Murasaki | G038.2 | True First is in a G5 binding | N |
| Three Famous Murder Novels | Misc | G066.1 | first binding style G5 | ? |
| Thurber Carnival | Thurber | 085.3 | first binding style 8; dust jacket lists 379 titles. No other way to tell, sadly. | N |
| Writings | James, W | G096.1 | All observed copies of this title have the first edition statement, even with a later jacket (although it may have only had one printing). First state jacket is variation 1 of Gj (Gj1). Copies with the first statement have been seen with a Gj5 jacket. | N |
| Young Lions | Shaw, I | 112.3 | first binding style 8; dust jacket lists 380 titles. No other way to tell. First statement in #8 bindings along with jackets as late as Fall 1963. | Y, first slug not seen in #13 binding. |