4 Richard Wilbur first editions are documented on this shelf, from The Beautiful Changes and Other Poems (1947) to New and Collected Poems (1988) across 3 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Richard Wilbur title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.
Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Richard Wilbur copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- The Beautiful Changes and Other Poems — 1947 · Reynal & Hitchcock, New YorkThe first edition is the Reynal & Hitchcock issue with a 1947-dated title page, small octavo, 55 pages, in a printed dust jacket; ABAA dealers uniformly record a first printing of only 750 copies, and the book is catalogued as Field A.1 in John P. Field's Wilbur bibliography. Reynal & Hitchcock carried no formal edition statement here, so identification rests on the imprint and date rather than on a printing line…. US only. Reynal & Hitchcock, New York, 1947 is the true first and the sole first edition — this was Wilbur's first book and no simultaneous or near-contemporaneous British edition was published. Wilbur's first UK book was the later Faber and Faber (London) collection Poems 1943-1956, in 1957, which is a separate selected volume and not an edition of The Beautiful Changes. The census claim of US-only precedence is…. No book-club edition documented for this title. The principal reprint trap is the Harcourt, Brace and Company issue: Harcourt acquired Reynal & Hitchcock and brought out the first reprinting — an undated printing of roughly 1,000 copies from August 1954, recorded in blue cloth (Field A.1.[1.2]). Any copy bearing the Harcourt, Brace imprint, or an undated title page, is the 1954 second printing and not the first.
- Things of This World — 1956 · Harcourt, Brace and CompanyHarcourt, Brace first edition with 'First edition' stated on the copyright page; light blue cloth, spine stamped in black; viii, 50 pages; in priced dust jacket. Won the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the 1957 National Book Award. US true first; Pulitzer and National Book Award winner and Wilbur's most collected single volume. Signed copies desirable. No book-club edition; later printings carry a printing statement rather than the 'First edition' line.
- The Mind-Reader — 1976 · Harcourt Brace JovanovichHarcourt Brace Jovanovich first edition, 'First edition' so stated, first printing; cloth in priced dust jacket; 67 pages. Subtitled 'New Poems.' Later printings (a stated second printing exists) drop or advance the first-edition statement. US true first. Wilbur, a two-time Pulitzer winner, is steadily collected; signed copies are reasonably available and desirable. No book-club edition; later printings drop the first-edition statement.
- New and Collected Poems — 1988 · Harcourt Brace JovanovichFirst printing: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (San Diego), 1988, stating 'First edition' with a full number line on the copyright page, bound with a navy spine lettered in white and gray, in dust jacket. Gathers six earlier collections together with twenty-seven new poems and a cantata. Won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, Wilbur's second. The US Harcourt Brace Jovanovich edition (1988) is the true first; the Faber and Faber (London) edition is the first English. No book club affects the true first. The number line advances on later printings.
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