# Is "Firstborn" by Louise Glück a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Firstborn by Louise Glück (The New American Library, New York, 1968) is identified by: First edition, first printing: The New American Library, New York, 1968, hardcover in dust jacket. The census claim is confirmed.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, first printing: The New American Library, New York, 1968, hardcover in dust jacket
- Collation [viii], 53, [3] pp., octavo (approx
- Publisher's binding is grey cloth boards with a differing grey cloth spine, the spine lettered in blue
- The jacket is a white typographic jacket and should be a priced jacket with the price present at the front flap, unclipped
- CAVEAT ON THE COPYRIGHT PAGE: none of the ABAA dealers consulted transcribes a printing statement or number line for the NAL issue; identification rests on the 1968 imprint/copyright date plus the grey cloth, blue-lettered spine and the priced typographic jacket, and no later NAL printing is recorded that would create ambiguity
- Wire-stapled NAL long galley/uncorrected proofs in paper wraps exist and are a separate pre-publication state, not the first edition
- Publisher imprint reads The New American Library, New York

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Louise Glück |
| Publisher | The New American Library, New York |
| Year | 1968 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | First edition, first printing: The New American Library, New York, 1968, hardcover in dust jacket |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First edition, first printing: The New American Library, New York, 1968, hardcover in dust jacket. Collation [viii], 53, [3] pp., octavo (approx. 22.2 cm). Publisher's binding is grey cloth boards with a differing grey cloth spine, the spine lettered in blue. The jacket is a white typographic jacket and should be a priced jacket with the price present at the front flap, unclipped. CAVEAT ON THE COPYRIGHT PAGE: none of the ABAA dealers consulted transcribes a printing statement or number line for the NAL issue; identification rests on the 1968 imprint/copyright date plus the grey cloth, blue-lettered spine and the priced typographic jacket, and no later NAL printing is recorded that would create ambiguity. Wire-stapled NAL long galley/uncorrected proofs in paper wraps exist and are a separate pre-publication state, not the first edition. FIRST-THUS TRAP: The Ecco Press reissue of 1983, in pictorial card wrappers, is catalogued "First Edition Thus" and is routinely mistaken for a first — it is not.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim is confirmed. The New American Library, New York, 1968 is the true first edition of Glück's debut. The first English (UK) edition followed from Anvil Press Poetry in 1969 (London/Northwood, Middlesex), issued in wrappers with a cover photograph by Charlez Hertz, 53 pp.; Anvil also issued a signed limited state of 50 numbered copies in red cloth, signed by Glück. Both editions are collected: the NAL 1968 as the true first, the Anvil 1969 as the first UK — and the Anvil signed limited of 50 is the scarcest state of the title. Do not let the red cloth of the Anvil limited be mistaken for a variant American binding.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue of the NAL edition is documented in any source consulted. The reprint trap here is not a club edition but the Ecco Press 1983 wrappers reissue ("first edition thus") and, secondarily, the Anvil wrappered UK issue being offered as "the first edition."

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Firstborn* by Louise Glück a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/firstborn
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.