# Is "A Street in Bronzeville" by Gwendolyn Brooks a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of A Street in Bronzeville by Gwendolyn Brooks (Harper & Brothers, New York, 1945) is identified by: Harper & Brothers, New York, 1945; published 18 August 1945; Brooks's first book. US only, and the census claim is correct.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Harper & Brothers, New York, 1945; published 18 August 1945
- Brooks's first book
- Collation vi, 57, [1] pp
- The first printing carries "FIRST EDITION" on the copyright page together with Harper's two-letter printing code, in which the second letter denotes the year: U = 1945
- Note that the Harper code records the month and year the sheets were printed, which may precede the publication date, so the month letter varies; a code whose year letter is other than U indicates a later printing
- Bound in publisher's black cloth, decoratively stamped and lettered in gilt (dealers describe the stamping variously as brown or as orange)
- Publisher imprint reads Harper & Brothers, New York

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Gwendolyn Brooks |
| Publisher | Harper & Brothers, New York |
| Year | 1945 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | Harper & Brothers, New York, 1945; published 18 August 1945 |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Harper & Brothers, New York, 1945; published 18 August 1945; Brooks's first book. Collation vi, 57, [1] pp. The first printing carries "FIRST EDITION" on the copyright page together with Harper's two-letter printing code, in which the second letter denotes the year: U = 1945. Note that the Harper code records the month and year the sheets were printed, which may precede the publication date, so the month letter varies; a code whose year letter is other than U indicates a later printing. Bound in publisher's black cloth, decoratively stamped and lettered in gilt (dealers describe the stamping variously as brown or as orange). Jacket states: the first-state jacket carries a "Buy War Bonds" notice and the jacket number "No. 2296" on the rear panel; the second-state jacket omits the War Bonds notice and carries "No. 2322" on the rear panel. Priced jacket — price present at the flap; a clipped flap removes one check on jacket state.

## Is this the true first?
US only, and the census claim is correct. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1945 is the sole first edition of Brooks's debut; no simultaneous or precedent British edition is recorded, and there is no original-language question. Later Harper and Harper & Row printings, and the collected/selected volumes that reprint the Bronzeville sequence, are "first thus" at best — the sequence's reappearance inside a later collection is not a first edition of this title.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition is documented for this title — a small first trade printing of poetry. The documented later-issue tells are the copyright page (loss of the "FIRST EDITION" statement, or a Harper code whose year letter is later than U) and the second-state jacket ("No. 2322" on the rear panel, no War Bonds notice).

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *A Street in Bronzeville* by Gwendolyn Brooks a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/a-street-in-bronzeville
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.