# Is "Divine Comedies" by James Merrill a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Divine Comedies by James Merrill (Atheneum, New York, 1976) is identified by: Atheneum, New York, 1976; cloth-bound octavo, 136 pages, in a pictorial dust jacket. US true first: Atheneum, New York, 1976 — the Pulitzer Prize-winning collection containing The Book of Ephraim and nine shorter poems.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Atheneum, New York, 1976; cloth-bound octavo, 136 pages, in a pictorial dust jacket
- The controlling point is the copyright-page statement: Atheneum stated "First Edition" on the copyright page of its first printings throughout this period and did not adopt a number row until the mid-1980s, so a 1976 Merrill in Atheneum cloth showing "First Edition" on the copyright page is the first printing, and its absence indicates a later printing
- No first-state text errors, binding variants, or jacket variants are documented for this title — the edition statement is the whole of the identification
- Jacket should be present and priced at the flap; price-clipped jackets are common
- No signed or limited issue of Divine Comedies is documented; signed copies encountered on the market are author-signed trade copies, some bearing a signature on a pasted-in label at the half-title, which is a provenance feature and not a separate issue
- Publisher imprint reads Atheneum, New York
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | James Merrill |
| Publisher | Atheneum, New York |
| Year | 1976 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | Atheneum, New York, 1976; cloth-bound octavo, 136 pages, in a pictorial dust jacket |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Atheneum, New York, 1976; cloth-bound octavo, 136 pages, in a pictorial dust jacket. The controlling point is the copyright-page statement: Atheneum stated "First Edition" on the copyright page of its first printings throughout this period and did not adopt a number row until the mid-1980s, so a 1976 Merrill in Atheneum cloth showing "First Edition" on the copyright page is the first printing, and its absence indicates a later printing. No first-state text errors, binding variants, or jacket variants are documented for this title — the edition statement is the whole of the identification. Jacket should be present and priced at the flap; price-clipped jackets are common. No signed or limited issue of Divine Comedies is documented; signed copies encountered on the market are author-signed trade copies, some bearing a signature on a pasted-in label at the half-title, which is a provenance feature and not a separate issue.

## Is this the true first?
US true first: Atheneum, New York, 1976 — the Pulitzer Prize-winning collection containing The Book of Ephraim and nine shorter poems. The British edition followed from Oxford University Press, Oxford/London, 1977 (ISBN 0192118676) and is collected as the first English edition, subordinate to the Atheneum printing. Both editions are collected; the Atheneum 1976 holds precedence. The census claim is confirmed on both points.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition documented. Later Atheneum printings are distinguished by the absence of the "First Edition" statement on the copyright page; an Atheneum paperback issue also exists (ISBN 0689108303) and is not the first. The Oxford University Press 1977 volume is a first-thus (first English edition), not a first edition, and should not be catalogued as a first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Divine Comedies* by James Merrill a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/divine-comedies
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.