# Is "Duineser Elegien (Duino Elegies)" by Rainer Maria Rilke a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Duineser Elegien (Duino Elegies) by Rainer Maria Rilke (Insel-Verlag, Leipzig, 1923) is identified by: Insel-Verlag issued the Elegien in 1923 in TWO forms, and the census note's "300-copy limited first printing" describes only one of them. German original, Insel-Verlag, Leipzig, 1923, is the true first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Insel-Verlag issued the Elegien in 1923 in TWO forms, and the census note's "300-copy limited first printing" describes only one of them
- The Vorzugsausgabe (deluxe issue) comprises 300 numbered large-paper copies on Zanders watermarked handmade Bütten, printed in red and black in Tiemann-Antiqua by Gebr
- Klingspor, Offenbach am Main; tall quarto, approximately 29 x 19.5 cm, 52 pages, uncut
- Within that 300: copies 1–100 were bound in full green gilt-decorated morocco (raised bands, inner dentelles, gilt top edge) at the Wiener Werkstätte, and the remaining 200 were issued in quarter morocco and boards or in pale blue boards; original jackets and slipcases were supplied and are frequently absent
- A handful of copies on Japan paper exist outside the numbered run — bibliographers disagree on how many (Ritzer gives three, Sarkowski five) — and are identified by the colophon, which names the recipient
- The ordinary trade edition of the same year is a separate, far larger printing (one source gives 10,000) in orange paper-covered boards with the title in black, two-colour typography, and is the copy most collectors will actually encounter
- Publisher imprint reads Insel-Verlag, Leipzig

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Rainer Maria Rilke |
| Publisher | Insel-Verlag, Leipzig |
| Year | 1923 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | Insel-Verlag issued the Elegien in 1923 in TWO forms, and the census note's "300-copy limited first printing" describes only one of them |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Insel-Verlag issued the Elegien in 1923 in TWO forms, and the census note's "300-copy limited first printing" describes only one of them. The Vorzugsausgabe (deluxe issue) comprises 300 numbered large-paper copies on Zanders watermarked handmade Bütten, printed in red and black in Tiemann-Antiqua by Gebr. Klingspor, Offenbach am Main; tall quarto, approximately 29 x 19.5 cm, 52 pages, uncut. Within that 300: copies 1–100 were bound in full green gilt-decorated morocco (raised bands, inner dentelles, gilt top edge) at the Wiener Werkstätte, and the remaining 200 were issued in quarter morocco and boards or in pale blue boards; original jackets and slipcases were supplied and are frequently absent. A handful of copies on Japan paper exist outside the numbered run — bibliographers disagree on how many (Ritzer gives three, Sarkowski five) — and are identified by the colophon, which names the recipient. The ordinary trade edition of the same year is a separate, far larger printing (one source gives 10,000) in orange paper-covered boards with the title in black, two-colour typography, and is the copy most collectors will actually encounter. Standard references: Sarkowski 1338; Ritzer E 9; Wilpert/Gähring 2/40; von Mises 94; Schauer II, 50–51.

## Is this the true first?
German original, Insel-Verlag, Leipzig, 1923, is the true first. PRECEDENCE WITHIN 1923 IS DISPUTED and buyers should be told so: most dealer descriptions state that the 300-copy Vorzugsausgabe precedes the ordinary trade edition (one dating the deluxe to June 1923 and the trade edition to October 1923), while at least one dealer describes the two as issued simultaneously. The identification points above are corroborated; the month-level sequencing is not, and no bibliography consulted settled it directly. Both 1923 issues are collected, and a trade-edition copy should be described as the ordinary first edition, not as "the" limited first. First English: Duineser Elegien: Elegies from the Castle of Duino, translated by Edward and Vita Sackville-West, Hogarth Press, London, 1931 — a small run, the earliest published English translation, and collected in its own right; the widely reprinted Leishman and Spender translation is later and is never the English first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented for the 1923 Insel printings. The reprint tells are the Insel house practice of stating the cumulative thousands on later trade impressions, and the physical separation of the two 1923 issues: absence of a hand-numbered limitation leaf, machine paper rather than Zanders Bütten, black-only rather than red-and-black printing, and the smaller ordinary format all indicate the trade edition or a later impression rather than the Vorzugsausgabe. Modern Insel and Vollständige Neuausgabe reprints are plentiful and clearly dated.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Duineser Elegien (Duino Elegies)* by Rainer Maria Rilke a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/duineser-elegien-duino-elegies
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.