# Is "April Twilights" by Willa Cather a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of April Twilights by Willa Cather (Richard G. Badger / The Gorham Press, 1903) is identified by: First edition, Richard G. US-only true first; there is no simultaneous or precedent UK edition.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, Richard G. Badger, The Gorham Press, Boston, 1903 (issued April 30, 1903)
- 52pp, small format
- Cather's first book and her only original poetry collection (36 poems)
- Bound in drab (grey/tan) paper-covered boards with a printed paper title label on the upper board and a second printed paper label on the spine; issued WITHOUT a dust wrapper
- This was a Gorham/Badger vanity-press production (author paid costs), which accounts for its fragility and the frequent chipping to the two paper labels
- Bibliographic references: Crane A1.a
- Publisher imprint reads Richard G. Badger / The Gorham Press

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Willa Cather |
| Publisher | Richard G. Badger / The Gorham Press |
| Year | 1903 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, Richard G. Badger, The Gorham Press, Boston, 1903 (issued April 30, 1903) |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First edition, Richard G. Badger, The Gorham Press, Boston, 1903 (issued April 30, 1903); 52pp, small format. Cather's first book and her only original poetry collection (36 poems). Bound in drab (grey/tan) paper-covered boards with a printed paper title label on the upper board and a second printed paper label on the spine; issued WITHOUT a dust wrapper. This was a Gorham/Badger vanity-press production (author paid costs), which accounts for its fragility and the frequent chipping to the two paper labels. Bibliographic references: Crane A1.a; Seven Gables, First Books 53. (A single census copy recorded in the Cather Archive finding aid has the title-page green lettering set tilting sharply to the right — treat this as an anomaly of one remainder copy, not a general point of issue.)

## Is this the true first?
US-only true first; there is no simultaneous or precedent UK edition. Do not confuse with the later, substantially different 'April Twilights and Other Poems' (Alfred A. Knopf, 1923), a revised and enlarged 'first thus' that drops many of the 1903 poems — a distinct book, not a reprint of the 1903 collection.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue. The desirability driver is genuine scarcity: in 1908 Cather bought up the unsold remainder from the publisher and destroyed the copies, having repudiated these early poems. The 1923 Knopf volume and modern University of Nebraska Press editions are clearly later and separately titled.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *April Twilights* by Willa Cather a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/april-twilights
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.