William Carlos Williams First Editions

• The Tempers — 1913 · Elkin MathewsWilliams's first commercially published book, arranged through Ezra Pound; a small 16mo bound in publisher's pale cream/yellow paper-covered boards, gilt-lettered on the front cover and spine, often originally issued in a glassine wrapper. Elkin Mathews imprint. Elkin Mathews (London) is the true first; Williams's first trade book. No competing US edition. No book club edition relevant to the true first.
• Al Que Quiere! — 1917 · The Four Seas CompanyFirst edition, published by The Four Seas Company of Boston in 1917 in a stated edition of one thousand copies (Wallace A7a). Bound in tan/orange-yellow paper-covered boards lettered in black on the front and spine. The recognized first-issue point is the author's surname misspelled "Willams" on the spine. The book gathers fifty-two poems and was Williams's third collection. Four Seas (Boston), 1917, is the true first; there is no prior edition. Later New Directions and other reissues are entirely separate settings and do not carry the Four Seas boards or the spine misspelling. No book-club edition is relevant to the true first.
• Kora in Hell: Improvisations — 1920 · The Four Seas CompanyFirst edition of Williams's prose-poem "improvisations," bound in publisher's plain dull gray paper-covered boards, with an abstract frontispiece drawing by Stuart Davis. Four Seas Company imprint, Boston. Four Seas (Boston) is the true first; no prior edition. No book club edition relevant to the true first.
• Sour Grapes — 1921 · The Four Seas CompanyFirst edition, The Four Seas Company, Boston, 1921, one of 1000 copies printed, bound in green paper boards with a printed paper spine label. The dust jacket is scarce. Cataloged as Wallace A5. An early collection that includes "To Waken an Old Lady," "The Widow's Lament in Springtime," and "The Great Figure.". US Four Seas edition of 1921 is the true first; no prior edition and no earlier UK printing. No book-club edition.
• Spring and All — 1923 · Contact Publishing CompanyContact Publishing Co. (Robert McAlmon's imprint), 1923, printed at Dijon by Maurice Darantière; an edition of about 300 copies in publisher's gray-blue wrappers. Contains 'The Red Wheelbarrow' (as poem XXII). Notoriously scarce, in part because many copies shipped to America were seized by US customs. True first (Contact Publishing Co., 1923) and one of the scarcest modernist firsts, at roughly 300 copies; the first book appearance of 'The Red Wheelbarrow.'. No book-club edition; the crux is the rarity of the 1923 Contact wrappers versus much later reprints and the 2011 New Directions facsimile.
• The Great American Novel — 1923 · Three Mountains PressFirst edition, Three Mountains Press, Paris, 1923, limited to 300 numbered copies on Rives hand-made paper, in printed wrappers. One of the six volumes in Ezra Pound's prose series (the 'Inquest' series). Some copies carry a 'Contact Editions' slip tipped to the title page over the press imprint. Paris / Three Mountains Press; the true first, scarce. No prior or concurrent edition. No book-club edition.
• In the American Grain — 1925 · Albert & Charles BoniFirst edition, first issue, Albert & Charles Boni, New York, 1925 (Wallace A9); Williams's first book issued by a commercial press. An octavo of roughly 235 pages bound in black cloth, with the scarce original dust jacket (which should retain its printed price). The first printing carries no later-printing statement on the copyright page. The 1925 Boni edition is the true first. The later New Directions reissue adds an introduction by Horace Gregory and does not affect first-edition status. No book-club edition of the first. The New Directions reissue, identifiable by its Gregory introduction and New Directions imprint, is a separate later edition.
• A Voyage to Pagany — 1928 · The Macaulay CompanyFirst edition, first printing, The Macaulay Company, New York, 1928, of Williams's first novel. Bound in light brown (tan) cloth with the titles and decorations lettered to the spine and front board in brown and black, the top edge dyed brown; 338 pages, octavo. Issued in a pictorial dust jacket that is scarce; the first-state jacket should retain its printed price. No later-printing or reset-text points are…. US Macaulay edition of 1928 is the true first; there is no prior edition and no earlier UK printing. New Directions later reissued the book in paperback, well after the first. No book-club edition.
• Collected Poems 1921-1931 — 1934 · The Objectivist PressFirst edition, The Objectivist Press, New York, 1934, viii, 134, [ii] pages, in a stated edition of 500 copies printed by J.J. Little and Ives Company, with a preface by Wallace Stevens. Bound in red (crimson) cloth with a printed paper label to the spine; the fore and tail edges are uncut. Issued by subscription. The original dust jacket is printed in red and is scarce. The US Objectivist Press edition is the true first. It is notable as the inaugural Objectivist Press book, launching the press in January 1934, and for Wallace Stevens's preface. No book-club edition was issued. Copies in the original red-printed jacket are especially scarce.
• An Early Martyr and Other Poems — 1935 · The Alcestis PressFirst edition, The Alcestis Press, 1935, limited to 165 copies, every copy signed by Williams on the limitation page. The issue comprises 20 copies numbered I-XX on Duca di Modena Italian handmade paper for presentation, 135 copies numbered 1-135 on Strathmore all-rag paper for sale, and 10 out-of-series review copies. US Alcestis Press; the true first, a scarce signed limited edition. No book-club edition.
• Adam & Eve & The City — 1936 · The Alcestis PressFirst edition, one of a small limited run issued by Ronald Lane Latimer's Alcestis Press (commonly cited at 167 copies). A fine-press limited from a press that produced fewer than ten books in its short life. Scarce. US Alcestis Press limited; no prior or competing edition. No book club edition.
• White Mule — 1937 · New DirectionsNovel (Stecher trilogy vol. 1) and the first novel New Directions published. First printing of 1,100 copies in white linen cloth lettered in black, top edge stained black, in a white dust jacket printed in brown. The key first-printing point is 'June 10' printed in the bottom margin of the front dust-jacket flap. Wallace A18a. US New Directions is the true first; later printings carry a printing notice. No book club edition.
• Life Along the Passaic River — 1938 · New DirectionsFirst edition of this collection of short fiction (18 stories). Oatmeal cloth lettered in black, head edge stained black, in an off-white dust jacket printed in blue. No prior edition; the New Directions issue is the first. US New Directions; no prior edition. No book club edition.
• The Complete Collected Poems 1906-1938 — 1938 · New DirectionsFirst edition, first printing (about 1,500 copies), in a dust jacket. Binding priority matters: copies in green buckram were bound first (1938-39) and precede the blue-buckram copies (a group of about 400 bound in 1940). Genuinely scarce in the dust jacket. Wallace A20a. US New Directions; the major collected first. Green-buckram binding precedes blue. No book club edition.
• In the Money — 1940 · New DirectionsFirst edition of the novel (subtitled 'White Mule, Part II'; second volume of the Stecher trilogy, sequel to 'White Mule' and preceding 'The Build-Up'). Published by New Directions in 1940, bound in publisher's blue cloth with spine lettering, and issued in a dust jacket that should carry its printed price on the flap. No prior edition exists; the New Directions issue is the first. US New Directions (Norfolk, Connecticut), 1940; no prior edition in any country. No book club edition was issued for this title.
• The Wedge — 1944 · The Cummington PressFine-press first edition, limited to 380 copies, hand-set in Centaur and Arrighi types on Dacian paper, bound in decorated paste-paper boards. Contains Williams's important preface (the 'a poem is a small (or large) machine made of words' statement). Scarce. US Cummington Press; scarce fine-press first, no competing edition. No book club edition.
• Paterson (Book One) — 1946 · New DirectionsFirst printing of Book One: New Directions, 1946, limited to 1000 copies, printed for New Directions by the Van Vechten Press, Metuchen, New Jersey; bound in beige cloth with black design and gilt lettering, in dust jacket. Each of the five Books (1946-1958) is a separate first; the first four were limited to 1000 copies, the fifth to 3000. US New Directions is the true first; no prior UK edition. No book-club issue. The one-volume collected 'Paterson' is a later publication.
• The Clouds — 1948 · The Wells College Press / The Cummington PressLimited fine-press edition of 310 numbered copies, jointly produced by the Wells College Press (Aurora, NY) and the Cummington Press (Cummington, MA). Of the 310, sixty Roman-numeraled copies were printed on handmade paper and signed by Williams; the remaining copies were on all-rag paper and unsigned. Gray cloth with a printed paper spine label; issued in a publisher's slipcase. The full title as printed reads…. US fine-press first (Wells College Press / Cummington Press), 1948. Scarce limited edition; the sixty signed handmade-paper copies are the premium state. No book club edition.
• The Collected Later Poems — 1950 · New DirectionsFirst edition, New Directions, in red cloth with dust jacket. The defining first-issue point is a separately printed pamphlet titled 'The Rose' laid in at the rear, containing poems accidentally omitted from the setting; a correct first should retain this laid-in pamphlet. Catalogued as Wallace A31. US New Directions first, 1950. A revised edition followed in 1963. First-issue copies include the laid-in 'The Rose' pamphlet. No book club edition.
• The Autobiography of William Carlos Williams — 1951 · Random HouseFirst edition, Random House, in blue cloth with dust jacket; book and jacket designed by Ernst Reichl. Random House first editions of this period do not carry a 'First Printing' statement; a first is identified by the absence of any later-printing notice and by the 1951 dating, with the jacket priced on the front flap. US Random House first, 1951; no prior edition. No book club edition of the first printing.
• The Collected Earlier Poems — 1951 · New DirectionsFirst edition, New Directions (New York), 1951, octavo, collating [10],482 pages, in publisher's red cloth with a gilt-lettered spine, issued in a dust jacket. The dust jacket is the scarcer element and is notably uncommon on surviving first-printing copies; a first issue should carry the printed price on the jacket flap (present on an unclipped example). Confirm by the New Directions imprint and the 1951 date. US New Directions first edition, 1951. Copies in the original dust jacket in the first printing are decidedly uncommon; the companion volume Collected Later Poems is a separate later book and should not be conflated with this title. No book club edition. The scarce first-printing dust jacket is the key identifying element on surviving copies.
• The Desert Music and Other Poems — 1954 · Random HouseIssued in two forms: a signed limited edition of roughly 100 copies (quarter cloth over paper-covered boards, signed by Williams) and a trade edition in tan cloth with dust jacket lettered in red and black. Random House trade firsts of this period carry no 'First Printing' statement; a first trade printing is identified by the 1954 dating and absence of any later-printing notice. US Random House, 1954. The signed limited (about 100 copies) precedes and is the premium over the trade first. No book club edition.
• Journey to Love — 1955 · Random HouseFirst edition, Random House, in gray cloth stamped in green and black to front board and spine, with black topstain, in dust jacket; approximately 3,000 copies. Includes 'Asphodel, That Greeny Flower.' Random House firsts of this period carry no 'First Printing' statement; a first is identified by the 1955 dating and absence of any later-printing notice. Catalogued as Wallace A41. US Random House first, 1955; no prior edition. No book club edition.
• Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems — 1962 · New DirectionsNew Directions first edition, 1962, first printing so stated, issued as a New Directions Paperbook in wrappers (NDP118). The wrappers issue is the true first form; there was no simultaneous New Directions cloth first. Won the 1963 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, awarded posthumously (Williams died March 1963). US true first; posthumous Pulitzer winner. The 1962 New Directions issue is the original-wrappers paperbook. A New Directions clothbound state subtitled 'Collected Poems 1950–1962' did not appear until 1967, and a separate UK MacGibbon & Kee hardcover came in 1963; neither is the 1962 first. No book-club edition. The trap is treating the later 1967 New Directions clothbound state (or the 1963 UK hardcover) as the 1962 first; the genuine first is the 1962 wrappers paperbook.

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