- Grove marks both first printings and later printings on the copyright page, so check there for any later-printing note.
- Books from the later twentieth century onwards also carry a number row.
- A number row counts printings: the lowest number left in the row gives the printing, so a row that still includes "1" points to a first printing.
- Grove also coded reprinted jackets: a later jacket has a small letter code on the rear panel ("ii" for a second printing jacket, "iii" for a third), while a first-printing jacket has none.
- Many Grove books are the first American edition of a work first published abroad (Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, for example, dates from 1934 but Grove issued it in 1961), so a Grove first is not always the true first edition.
- Book club copies (a general tell for US trade houses; no mark specific to this house was found): a jacket flap with no printed price is the commonest sign, though a printed price does not on its own rule out a club copy. Also look for a small blind stamp, such as a dot or square, pressed into the rear board, and for a book that is smaller and more cheaply made than the trade edition.
Publisher · founded 1951 · New York City
Grove Press
Grove Press is the New York house Barney Rosset built from 1951 on Beckett, the Beats and landmark censorship fights, now an imprint of Grove/Atlantic.
- Editions tracked
- 116
- First editions
- 68
- Books
- 116
- Years
- 1948 to 2023
Grove Press is a publisher based in New York City, founded in 1951. We track 116 editions it published between 1948 and 2023, 68 of them first editions across 116 books. How Grove Press marked its first editions is set out below, with a checker for the year on your title page.
About Grove Press
Grove Press was founded in 1949 by John Balcomb and Robert Phelps in Greenwich Village, on Grove Street. In 1950 it published selected writings of Aphra Behn, edited by Phelps. (Dealer guides give other founding years, 1947 and 1951.)
In 1951 Phelps sold the press to Barney Rosset for three thousand dollars, and Rosset turned it into an alternative house that introduced American readers to the European avant-garde. With Richard Seaver he brought French writers such as Alain Robbe-Grillet, Jean Genet and Eugene Ionesco to American readers, and in 1954 Grove published Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot after more mainstream houses had turned it down, remaining Beckett's American publisher. Grove also published Harold Pinter, Frank O'Hara's Meditations in an Emergency (1957), most of the Beat writers, and Eric Berne's Games People Play (1964). From 1957 to 1973 it ran the magazine Evergreen Review.
Grove fought a series of censorship battles: its unexpurgated Lady Chatterley's Lover (1959), Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer (1961) and William S. Burroughs's Naked Lunch, for which it was the first American publisher.
In 1985 Rosset sold Grove to Ann Getty and George Weidenfeld. In 1993 it merged with the Atlantic Monthly Press under Morgan Entrekin, and it is now an imprint of Grove/Atlantic.
Holding a copy? The first edition checker shows Grove Press's practice for the year on your title page.
Identification
How to identify Grove Press first editions
Authors
Books
Published by Grove Press
Frequently asked questions
How do I identify a Grove Press first edition?
- Grove marks both first printings and later printings on the copyright page, so check there for any later-printing note. - Books from the later twentieth century onwards also carry a number row. - A number row counts printings: the lowest number left in the row gives the printing, so a row that still includes "1" points to a first printing. - Grove also coded reprinted jackets: a later jacket has
How many Grove Press books does MyVolumes track?
We track 116 editions published by Grove Press, 68 of them first editions, across 116 books.
Where these facts come from
- First-Edition - Identification by Publisher (Allen and Patricia Ahearn), ILAB, 2010 (ilab.org)
- First Edition Information by Publisher, Evening Land Books (eveninglandbooks.com)
- Identifying First Editions, A Primer: The Publishers, IOBA (ioba.org)
- Grove Press, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- Identifying Book Club Editions, IOBA (ioba.org)
- Identifying Book Club Editions, bookfever.com (bookfever.com)
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources listed. Checked 17 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.