# Is "Bless Me, Ultima first" by Rudolfo Anaya a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Bless Me, Ultima first by Rudolfo Anaya (Quinto Sol, 1972) is identified by: First edition, first printing, Quinto Sol Publications, Berkeley, California, June 1972. The Quinto Sol Berkeley 1972 issue is the true first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, first printing, Quinto Sol Publications, Berkeley, California, June 1972
- Issued simultaneously in a small cloth (hardcover) issue and the more common pictorial card-wrappers issue; both are true firsts of the same first printing
- The cloth issue is bound in black boards with the spine lettered in silver; the wrappers issue is in pictorial card covers reproducing the Ultima cover art
- Interior black-and-white illustrations were commissioned by the press
- Publisher imprint reads Quinto Sol
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Rudolfo Anaya |
| Publisher | Quinto Sol |
| Year | 1972 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, first printing, Quinto Sol Publications, Berkeley, California, June 1972 |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
First edition, first printing, Quinto Sol Publications, Berkeley, California, June 1972. Issued simultaneously in a small cloth (hardcover) issue and the more common pictorial card-wrappers issue; both are true firsts of the same first printing. The cloth issue is bound in black boards with the spine lettered in silver; the wrappers issue is in pictorial card covers reproducing the Ultima cover art. Interior black-and-white illustrations were commissioned by the press.

## Is this the true first?
The Quinto Sol Berkeley 1972 issue is the true first. Because the cloth and wrappers issues were produced simultaneously from the same first printing, neither has clear bibliographic precedence over the other; both are first-edition, first-printing.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Book-club editions and later commercial reprints (including the Warner and subsequent trade paperbacks) reset the text and are not the first edition. The press that created the Chicano literary canon; all four Premio Quinto Sol winners are now deceased, so their signature pools are closed. Confirm the 1972 Quinto Sol imprint and the cloth-vs-wrappers points above rather than relying on the presence of the title alone.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Bless Me, Ultima first* by Rudolfo Anaya a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/bless-me-ultima-first
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.