Seamus Heaney First Editions

• Eleven Poems — 1965 · Festival Publications, Queen's University, BelfastHeaney's first book: a stapled pamphlet in white self-wrappers lettered in black, issued for the 1965 Queen's University Belfast Festival while Heaney was still at Queen's. The first issue is printed on laid paper and carries the Festival sun device with nine points, printed in purple, on the upper wrapper — Brandes & Durkan A1(a); the nine-point sun is the reliable first-issue test. The second issue shows the…. Belfast, 1965 — this pamphlet precedes Death of a Naturalist (Faber, London, 1966) and has no UK trade or American counterpart, so there is no competing edition and the Belfast issue is the unambiguous true first. Only the first issue, with the nine-point sun, is the true first printing; the second issue and the 1966 third printing are the same edition but not the first, and are the standing trap in a "first…. No book-club edition. The later-issue tells are the printings themselves: second issue with the redrawn, larger purple sun, and the third printing in green card wrappers with the 1966 herald device. Brandes & Durkan record several states of the third printing, varying in dimensions, paper, printer's details on the lower wrapper and even the order of the poems, without assigning priority among them.
• Death of a Naturalist — 1966 · Faber and FaberFaber and Faber, London, 1966; Heaney's first major collection, octavo, 57 pages, printed in Great Britain by Latimer Trend & Co. The first edition (Brandes & Durkan A2a) is bound in green cloth with the spine lettered in gilt. It is issued in a salmon/tan and white dust jacket lettered in black; the rear panel lists other Faber poets, including Auden, Eliot, Hughes, Larkin, Lowell, MacNeice, and Spender. A…. The Faber UK edition is the true first. The US Oxford University Press edition (also 1966) was made up of the UK sheets with a new American title page, in roughly one thousand copies, so it follows the Faber printing rather than competing with it. Brandes and Durkan is the standard bibliographic authority (A2a). No book-club edition. The crux is the priced Faber first impression (green cloth, salmon-and-white jacket, no impression line) versus later Faber printings that add a printing statement, and versus the US Oxford issue printed from the same sheets.
• Door into the Dark — 1969 · Faber & Faber, LondonFirst edition, first impression: octavo, 56 pp., in the publisher's black cloth/linen lettered in gilt at the spine, in the dust jacket printed in red, green and white; the jacket should be unclipped with the price present at the flap. Brandes & Durkan A5. Copies as issued frequently have the Poetry Book Society Bulletin for Summer 1969 — carrying Heaney's own introductory remarks on the collection — loosely…. Faber & Faber (London), 1969 is the true first, confirming the census claim; the Oxford University Press (New York) 1969 issue is the first American edition and follows it. Both are collected. The two are easily confused because the American issue is described in the same black cloth with gilt spine lettering and the same red/green/white jacket, so the title-page and copyright-page imprint is the only safe check.…. No book-club edition documented for the 1969 issue. The reprint tells are Faber's later impressions, which add an impression line to the copyright page, and the later Faber paperback reissues (the title remains in print), which are not firsts.
• Wintering Out — 1972 · Faber and Faber, LondonFirst edition, first impression, Faber and Faber, London, 1972 — issued as a paperback original in publisher's stiff printed wrappers (blue, grey, black and white, lettered in black, with French flaps), pp. (6) 7-80. This wrappered issue is the true first; no 1972 hardback was issued simultaneously, and the hardback did not appear until 1973. Faber's post-1968 practice sets the year on the copyright page in…. UK true first — but not as the census states. CORRECTION: the priority copy is the Faber wrappered paperback original of 1972, not a Faber hardback; the census note omits this and implies a conventional hardback first. Faber's hardback followed in 1973. The first American edition is Oxford University Press, New York, 1973, in turquoise cloth-effect boards with gilt spine lettering, in dust jacket; one dealer…. No book-club issue documented. The dominant trap is a 1973 hardback — Faber or Oxford University Press — described as 'the first edition'; both are a year later than the wrappered original, and Ulysses Rare Books catalogues a 1973 issue as the second issue. Because the true first is a paperback original, condition tells (spine toning, panel wear, chipping at the spine foot) rather than jacket points govern….
• North — 1975 · Faber and FaberFirst edition, first impression, Faber and Faber (London, 9 June 1975), catalogued as Brandes & Durkan A12a. Issued in publisher's light blue cloth with gilt titles to the spine. The dust jacket is printed on a pale blue ground (notably prone to fading) and reproduces Edward McGuire's portrait of the author on the rear panel; the jacket should retain its original printed price. Faber issued a hardback in boards…. The Faber UK edition (9 June 1975, Brandes & Durkan A12a) is the true first; Oxford University Press issued the US edition. The hardback in cloth and the paperback in wrappers were published simultaneously, with the hardback the scarcer of the two. Not a book club. Confirm the Faber first impression via the copyright page (no later-impression statement).
• Field Work — 1979 · Faber and FaberFaber and Faber first edition, 'first published in 1979' so stated on the copyright page, with no later printing line. Issued simultaneously in cloth boards with a priced dust jacket and in stiff card wrappers; the casebound copy in jacket is the collector's first. Contains the Glanmore Sonnets and the Lowell elegy. Catalogued Brandes and Durkan A20a (boards) and A20b (wrappers). UK Faber is the true first; the US Farrar, Straus and Giroux edition followed in 1979. For a true first, seek the Faber casebound copy in jacket. No book-club edition. Later Faber printings add a printing statement; the wrappered issue is a simultaneous form, not a later state.
• Station Island — 1984 · Faber & FaberThe true first is Faber & Faber (London), 1984, identified by the 'First published in 1984' statement on the copyright page; it was issued simultaneously in black cloth boards (the hardback issue, reported at about 3,000 copies) and in pictorial wrappers (the paperback issue, about 10,000 copies), the hardback carrying Faber's dust jacket. The clothbound issue is the collected primary form. First American…. UK precedence: Faber & Faber (London) 1984 precedes the Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York) 1985 first American edition. Both London issues (cloth and wrappers) are first editions dated 1984; the black-cloth hardback is the collected point. No book-club edition documented. The FSG New York 1985 is a distinct first American, not a reprint; later Faber paperback reprints are not the 1984 first.
• The Spirit Level — 1996 · Faber & FaberHeaney's first collection after his 1995 Nobel Prize; won the 1996 Whitbread Poetry Award. UK Faber & Faber first printing, 1996: 'First published in 1996' with a full descending number line on the copyright page; dark green cloth boards lettered in gilt to spine, in dust jacket. US Farrar, Straus & Giroux is the first American printing. UK Faber & Faber (1996) is the true first; the US FSG edition is the first American printing. No book-club issue. The first printing shows the complete descending number line; later printings advance it (a later printing shows, for example, a line beginning at 6).
• Beowulf: A New Verse Translation — 1999 · Faber & FaberThe true first is Faber & Faber (London), 1999, in black boards with the dust-jacket painting by Barrie Cooke and identified by the 'First published in 1999' statement on the copyright page (Heaney's Modern-English verse translation). Faber also issued a deluxe signed limited state of 300 numbered copies, quarter red cloth over cream boards in a card slipcase, bound by Smith Settle. It won the 1999 Whitbread Book…. UK precedence: Faber & Faber (London) 1999 is the true first, ahead of Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York) 2000 as first American (an FSG facing-page Old English / Modern English 'bilingual' issue also appears under the 2000 imprint). Note a source conflict: Wikipedia loosely dates both the London and New York editions to 1999, but the physical FSG US hardcover is dated 2000 and dealer records consistently give…. No book-club edition documented as the first. The FSG New York 2000 hardcover, the FSG bilingual issue, and the 2000-and-later paperbacks are not the 1999 Faber first printing.

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