Exactly what is, to use the popular locution, the “first edition” of Lolita in Spanish? Or, more precisely, who issued the first Spanish translation, when was that, and in what form did it appear?

There are three candidates, each published in 1959:

• An authorized translation by Enrique Tejedor, issued by Victoria Ocampo’s Sur in Buenos Aires.
• An unauthorized issue by Diana in Montevideo.
• An unauthorized issue by Azteca in Mexico, D.F. (Mexico City).

Let’s deal with the latter two first. I got those citations originally from Dieter E. Zimmer’s Vladimir Nabokov: Bibliographie des Gesamtwerks (Rowohlt, 1963, revised 1964). Andrew Field’s notoriously inaccurate and oddly organized Nabokov: A Bibliography (McGraw-Hill, 1973) also has them, probably picked up from Zimmer. I can find no other citations nor copies of the books in dealers’ hands or on libraries’ shelves. Until further evidence is turned up, I am here going to make the totally unsupported but logical assumption that the publishers, Diana and Azteca,  did not commission their translations but simply stole Tejedor’s when they saw that a quick and easy peso could be turned by publishing the very hot novel themselves. That is, they pirated the translation.

I know nothing about Victoria Ocampo other than what Wikipedia tells me. The key information in the article is that “she was founder (1931) and publisher of the Argentine magazine Sur, the most important literary magazine of its time in Latin America.” Her roster of writers is very impressive (Borges, Sabato, Bioy Caesares, Cortázar, Ortega y Gasset, and so on). Her publishing Lolita, therefore, is not surprising.

Sur issued Lolita three times in wrappers in 1959, each with the same cover. The colophons of the books show they were printed on 24 April, 29 May, and 10 June. I know that the 29 May printing also had a paper-over-boards binding. So, when you see a dealer offering a Spanish “first edition” of Lolita, be sure to first check the colophon. It should read, “la presente edición | se terminó de imprimir | el día 24 de abril de 1959 | en Talleres Gráficos Torfano | castro barros 130, | buenos aires, | argentina”.

Lolita, Sur, 1961

It was reissued in wrappers (different cover and slightly smaller format) in 1961 as number 18 in the series “Novelas”. That edition has the statement at the bottom of the front flap, “Prohibida su venta en el municipio de Buenos Aires.” Oddly, I have no evidence that Lolita was printed in Spanish between 1961 and its next issue in 1970 by the Mexican press Grijalbo.

So, in summary, this is what we’ve got for the first publications of Lolita in Spanish:

• Printed 24 April 1959, published by Sur in Buenos Aires, in wrappers, translated by Enrique Tejedor [examined].
• Printed 29 May 1959, published by Sur in Buenos Aires, in pictorial boards, translated by Enrique Tejedor [examined].
• Printed 29 May 1959, published by Sur in Buenos Aires, in wrappers, translated by Enrique Tejedor [examined].
• Printed 10 June 1959, published by Sur in Buenos Aires, in wrappers, translated by Enrique Tejedor [examined].
• Issued in 1959, published by Diana in Montevideo, probably pirated, translator unknown but probably Tejedor [not examined].
• Issued in 1959, published by Azteca in Mexico City, probably pirated, translator unknown but probably Tejedor [not examined].
• Printed 17 May 1961, published by Sur, in series “Novelas”, number 18, in wrappers, translated by Enrique Tejedor [examined].
• Unknown printing date, published by Sur, in series “Novelas”, number 18, unknown binding, possible “enc.” edition, translated by Enrique Tejedor [not examined].
• Printed 30 March 1970, published by Grijalbo in Barcelona, in wrappers, translated by Enrique Tejedor [examined].