Robert Lowell First Editions

• Land of Unlikeness — 1944 · The Cummington PressLowell's first book. Fine-press limited edition of 250 copies, of which 26 were printed on Dacian paper, numbered, and signed by the author (the balance of 224 unsigned). Hand-set at the Cummington Press by Harry Duncan; introduction by Allen Tate; title-page woodcut by Gustav Wolf. Finished July 1944. US Cummington Press; the scarce true first. Many poems were revised and reused in 'Lord Weary's Castle' (1946). The 26 signed Dacian-paper copies are the more desirable state. No book club edition.
• Lord Weary's Castle — 1946 · Harcourt, Brace and CompanyBlack cloth boards, gilt spine lettering, 69 pp., octavo. The title-page verso states 'first edition'. Pictorial dust jacket. The same-year second impression deletes the 'first edition' statement, carries the code [b.3.47] on the copyright page, was styled 'Second Edition' on the jacket flap, and silently revised four poems: 'The Exile's Return,' 'The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket,' 'The First Sunday in Lent,'…. US true first. This was Lowell's second book, following the very scarce 1944 limited Land of Unlikeness, and won the 1947 Pulitzer Prize. The Faber UK edition followed, so there is no UK-precedence issue. No book-club edition of consequence. The trap is the same-year second impression, distinguished by the absence of the 'first edition' statement on the title-page verso, the [b.3.47] code, and the revised poem texts. The four revised poems are documented in Mazzaro's Lowell bibliography.
• The Mills of the Kavanaughs — 1951 · Harcourt, BraceFirst edition, first printing, Harcourt, Brace; black cloth with gilt spine lettering, in yellow-and-green dust jacket; small octavo, 55 pages. First printing has no statement of later impression. Jacket spine commonly faded. US Harcourt, Brace; precedes Faber & Faber UK (1952). Title poem plus five shorter poems. No book club edition.
• Life Studies — 1959 · Farrar, Straus and CudahyUS Farrar, Straus and Cudahy edition (New York, April 1959), first US printing so stated ('First printing, 1959' on the copyright page). The US edition is bound in green cloth with a bright green topstain and includes the prose memoir '91 Revere Street' as Part II. Cloth in dust jacket with the original printed price on the flap. Precedence point: the UK Faber and Faber edition was deliberately published FIRST in 1959 so the book could be entered for the Poetry Book Society, whose rules required a British first edition; the US Farrar, Straus and Cudahy edition followed in April 1959. The two differ in contents — the rushed Faber first printing OMITTED '91 Revere Street,' which appears in the fuller US edition. The Faber is therefore the…. Not a book club. The crucial distinctions are precedence (Faber UK is chronologically first) and contents (only the US edition includes '91 Revere Street'). Verify the 'First printing, 1959' statement and the green cloth with green topstain for the US first.
• Imitations — 1961 · Farrar, Straus & CudahyLoose translations/versions after Homer, Baudelaire, Rilke, Montale, Pasternak, Rimbaud and others. First edition, first printing, Farrar, Straus & Cudahy; cloth with dust jacket. First printing per convention (no later-impression statement). US Farrar, Straus & Cudahy; precedes Faber & Faber UK (1962). Awarded the 1962 Bollingen Prize for translation. No book club edition.
• Phaedra — 1961 · Farrar, Straus & CudahyLowell's verse translation of Racine's Phedre. First edition, Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, 1961, in cloth with dust jacket; drawings by Frank Parker. First printing per the imprint's convention (no later printing statement). US Farrar, Straus & Cudahy edition of 1961; the Faber UK edition followed in 1963. No book club edition noted.
• For the Union Dead — 1964 · Farrar, Straus and GirouxFSG first edition, with a stated first printing on the copyright page. Green cloth boards stamped in gilt to the spine, 72 pp., octavo; title-page drawing by Francis Parker; priced dust jacket. Contains the title elegy 'For the Union Dead' (the Colonel Shaw / Boston Common poem). US true first; the Faber UK edition follows (1965). Signed copies are scarce. No book-club edition of note; later printings carry higher printing statements.
• The Old Glory — 1965 · Farrar, Straus & GirouxLowell's first dramatic work: a trilogy of three plays (Endecott and the Red Cross; My Kinsman, Major Molineux; Benito Cereno) after Hawthorne and Melville. First edition, FSG, black cloth with dust jacket, stated 'First Printing, 1965.' A revised edition followed in 1968. US FSG first edition of 1965 precedes the 1968 revised edition. No book club edition noted.
• Near the Ocean — 1967 · Farrar, Straus & GirouxPoems, with a title-page drawing and twenty-one in-text drawings by Sidney Nolan. First edition, FSG, black cloth with rose endpapers, dust jacket; stated 'First Printing, 1967' with no later printings indicated. US FSG first edition of 1967; the Faber UK edition also appeared in 1967, with the US edition generally cited as the true first. No book club edition noted.
• Notebook 1967-68 — 1969 · Farrar, Straus & GirouxFirst edition, FSG, cloth with dust jacket; stated 'First Printing, 1969.' Comprises unrhymed fourteen-line sonnets. Later revised and expanded as 'Notebook' (1970) and recast into three 1973 volumes (History; For Lizzie and Harriet; The Dolphin). US FSG first edition of 1969 precedes the 1970 'Notebook' revision. No book club edition noted.
• For Lizzie and Harriet — 1973 · Farrar, Straus & GirouxUS Farrar, Straus & Giroux first edition, 1973, stated 'First Printing, 1973' on the copyright page. Bound in teal-blue cloth with the spine lettered in gilt and apple-green endpapers, in a pictorial dust jacket. The jacket and title-page drawing are by Frank Parker (also credited on some copies as Francis Parker). Reworks sonnets from 'Notebook.'. US FSG first edition of 1973, preceding or concurrent with the UK Faber & Faber edition, also 1973. No book club edition noted; later printings are identified by the stated printing on the copyright page (e.g., '2nd Printing').
• History — 1973 · Farrar, Straus & GirouxFirst edition, FSG, cloth with dust jacket; stated 'First Printing, 1973.' Recasts and reworks much of 'Notebook,' adding a substantial body of new poems. US FSG first edition of 1973; the Faber UK edition also appeared in 1973, with the US edition generally cited as the true first. No book club edition noted.
• The Dolphin — 1973 · Farrar, Straus & GirouxWon the 1974 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1973; first printing identified by the FSG first-printing statement with the year on the copyright page (FSG used wording such as First printing, 1973). Issued in a dust jacket. A UK Faber edition appeared the same year (1973). The US FSG and UK Faber editions are both 1973 and near-concurrent; the FSG issue is generally treated as the trade first, though precedence between the two is not firmly settled. No book club issue of note; later printings drop the first-printing statement.
• Day by Day — 1977 · Farrar, Straus & GirouxLowell's last collection, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. First edition, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, red cloth with gold spine lettering and dust jacket; 137 pages. First printing carries the 'First printing, 1977' statement on the copyright page. US FSG (1977) is the true first; the Faber & Faber UK edition follows in 1978. No book-club edition.

More Literary Fiction (US) & Award Winners shelves: Robert Ludlum, Robert Penn Warren, Robert Silverberg, Robert Smith Surtees, Robert Stone, Roger Zelazny.

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