A manuscript exists of the first draft of El Señor Presidente, which at that time (July 1933) was entitled Tohil. This is now in the National Library of Paris.[97] "Tohil's Dance" is the title of chapter 37 of the finished work. The main differences between this draft and the published book can be found in chapter 12 ("Camila") and in the fact that the former lacks the latter's epilogue.[98]
The first published version of El Señor Presidente came out in 1946, while Asturias was semi-exiled in Mexico City. The publication was financed by Asturias himself, aided by his parents, as the manuscript had been rejected by the publishers to whom he had sent it.[99] This first edition suffered from numerous typographical errors. These errors were only rectified in the third edition, published in Argentina in 1952, which also included numerous substantial changes introduced by Asturias himself. This edition is, therefore, the first definitive version of the book. As noted by Gerald Martin, editor of the 2000 critical edition, "measured in terms of its decisive historical influence," the third (Losada) edition is "easily the most important of them all".[100]
Selected editions:
- 1946, Mexico, Costa-Amic (ISBN NA), hardback (First edition, original Spanish)
- 1948, Argentina, Losada (ISBN NA), hardback (Second edition, Spanish)
- 1952, Argentina, Losada (ISBN NA), hardback (Third edition, Spanish, corrected by author)
- 1963, UK, Victor Gollancz (ISBN NA), paperback (Eng. trans. by Frances Partridge as The President)
- 1964, US, Atheneum (ISBN NA), paperback (Eng. trans. by Frances Partridge as El Señor Presidente)
- 1972, UK, Penguin (ISBN 978-0-14-003404-2), pub date 30 March 1972, paperback (Eng. trans. as The President)
- 1978, France, Klincksieck, and Mexico, Fondo de Cultura Económica (ISBN NA) (Spanish, first critical edition, ed. by Ricardo Navas Ruiz and Jean-Marie Saint-Lu, part of Asturias's Complete Works)
- 1997, US, Waveland Press (ISBN 978-0-88133-951-2), pub date August 1997, paperback (Eng. trans. as The President)
- 2000, Spain, Galaxia Gutenberg, and France, ALLCA XX (ISBN 84-89666-51-2), hardback (Spanish, critical edition ed. by Gerald Martin)
- 2005, Spain, Alianza (ISBN 978-84-206-5876-6), pub date 2 January 2005, paperback (Spanish
