# Is "Gather Together in My Name" by Maya Angelou a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Gather Together in My Name by Maya Angelou (Random House, New York, 1974) is identified by: First printing: the copyright page carries the statement "First Edition" together with Random House's full number line 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2. US Random House (New York, 1974) is the true first — the census claim holds.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First printing: the copyright page carries the statement "First Edition" together with Random House's full number line 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
- The line correctly ends in 2, NOT 1 — a line ending in 2 is house practice for this publisher and is not evidence of a second printing
- Binding is orange cloth (some dealers describe the shade as red), gilt-stamped lettering to the spine, with the author's initials stamped as a monogram in copper/red to the front board
- Pictorial jacket designed by Janet Halverson, price present at the flap (unclipped), with the code "5/74" printed at the lower left of the rear flap corresponding to the May 1974 publication, and five review blurbs to the rear panel (James Baldwin, John O. Killens, Robert A. Gross, The New York Times, Cleveland Plain Dealer)
- Publisher imprint reads Random House, New York
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Maya Angelou |
| Publisher | Random House, New York |
| Year | 1974 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First printing: the copyright page carries the statement "First Edition" together with Random House's full number line 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
First printing: the copyright page carries the statement "First Edition" together with Random House's full number line 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2. The line correctly ends in 2, NOT 1 — a line ending in 2 is house practice for this publisher and is not evidence of a second printing. Binding is orange cloth (some dealers describe the shade as red), gilt-stamped lettering to the spine, with the author's initials stamped as a monogram in copper/red to the front board; 214 pp. Pictorial jacket designed by Janet Halverson, price present at the flap (unclipped), with the code "5/74" printed at the lower left of the rear flap corresponding to the May 1974 publication, and five review blurbs to the rear panel (James Baldwin, John O. Killens, Robert A. Gross, The New York Times, Cleveland Plain Dealer).

## Is this the true first?
US Random House (New York, 1974) is the true first — the census claim holds. No UK-vs-US or original-language precedence question arises: an American book by an American author, first published in the United States, and the American issue is the only edition collected as the first. The census note is also correct that this is the second volume of Angelou's autobiographical sequence, following I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Random House, 1969).

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Random House's own convention supplies the decisive reprint tell: subsequent printings REMOVE the "First Edition" statement while retaining the number line, so a copy showing the number line with no "First Edition" statement above it is a later printing. No book-club edition is specifically documented for this title; the general Random House-era club tells (reduced trim, thinner bulk, blind-stamped device to the rear board, jacket with no price at the flap) are offered only as the house pattern and are not confirmed for this book.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Gather Together in My Name* by Maya Angelou a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/gather-together-in-my-name
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.