# Is "Counter-Attack and Other Poems" by Siegfried Sassoon a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Counter-Attack and Other Poems by Siegfried Sassoon (William Heinemann, London, 1918) is identified by: True first: London, printed by Richard Clay & Sons, Limited for William Heinemann, 1918 (Keynes A17a; 1,500 copies). Heinemann's London 1918 edition is the true first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- True first: London, printed by Richard Clay & Sons, Limited for William Heinemann, 1918 (Keynes A17a
- 1,500 copies)
- Octavo, roughly 181 x 120 mm, issued in original printed stiff wrappers — red and orange — with fore-edge (French) flaps folding over the endpapers; no dust jacket was called for on the wrappered issue
- The title page bears the Heinemann imprint and the 1918 date with no impression statement
- Heinemann reprinted at once, and auction and dealer records document a stated 'Second impression'
- and a 'Fourth impression'
- Publisher imprint reads William Heinemann, London

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Siegfried Sassoon |
| Publisher | William Heinemann, London |
| Year | 1918 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | True first: London, printed by Richard Clay & Sons, Limited for William Heinemann, 1918 (Keynes A17a |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
True first: London, printed by Richard Clay & Sons, Limited for William Heinemann, 1918 (Keynes A17a; 1,500 copies). Octavo, roughly 181 x 120 mm, issued in original printed stiff wrappers — red and orange — with fore-edge (French) flaps folding over the endpapers; no dust jacket was called for on the wrappered issue. The title page bears the Heinemann imprint and the 1918 date with no impression statement; Heinemann reprinted at once, and auction and dealer records document a stated 'Second impression' (1918) and a 'Fourth impression' (1919). Cloth-bound Heinemann copies are encountered and are generally these later impressions, so the impression statement in the preliminaries, not the binding, is the decisive tell. The text is dedicated to Robert Ross.

## Is this the true first?
Heinemann's London 1918 edition is the true first. E. P. Dutton & Co., New York, 1918 is the first American edition and is separately collected because it adds an introduction by Robert Nichols not present in the London printing — Nichols's introduction is dated from New York City in late November, placing the American edition after London publication. Dutton reprints dated 1919 and 1920 (the latter carrying a 'Third Printing' statement) circulate widely and are frequently mis-listed as the American first; a copy in cloth or boards with a Nichols introduction is American, never the London first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition is documented for the 1918 printings. Reprint tells are the stated impressions — Heinemann 'Second impression' (1918) and 'Fourth impression' (1919) — and the dated/numbered Dutton printings of 1919 and 1920. The poems were reset for The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon (Heinemann, 1919), which is a 'first thus' collection and not a first edition of Counter-Attack.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Counter-Attack and Other Poems* by Siegfried Sassoon a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/counter-attack-and-other-poems
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.