# Is "Here and Now" by Denise Levertov a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Here and Now by Denise Levertov (City Lights Books, 1957) is identified by: City Lights Books, San Francisco, dated 1957, issued as Number Six in Lawrence Ferlinghetti's Pocket Poets Series — two numbers after Ginsberg's Howl and Other Poems. US first, and Levertov's American debut — but NOT her first book, and this is the trap.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- City Lights Books, San Francisco, dated 1957, issued as Number Six in Lawrence Ferlinghetti's Pocket Poets Series — two numbers after Ginsberg's Howl and Other Poems
- Stapled printed wrappers: green paper wrappers with a white paper wraparound label onlaid to the front cover, printed in matching green
- 12mo, 32 pages
- The first printing was limited to 500 copies, letterpress-printed in England at the press of Villiers Publications, Holloway, London, in January 1957 for City Lights in San Francisco
- The book is catalogued as Cook 6 in Ralph T. Cook's descriptive bibliography of City Lights Books (No
- 7-8), and a first printing must answer all points there
- Publisher imprint reads City Lights Books

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Denise Levertov |
| Publisher | City Lights Books |
| Year | 1957 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | City Lights Books, San Francisco, dated 1957, issued as Number Six in Lawrence Ferlinghetti's Pocket Poets Series — two numbers after… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
City Lights Books, San Francisco, dated 1957, issued as Number Six in Lawrence Ferlinghetti's Pocket Poets Series — two numbers after Ginsberg's Howl and Other Poems. Stapled printed wrappers: green paper wrappers with a white paper wraparound label onlaid to the front cover, printed in matching green; 12mo, 32 pages. The first printing was limited to 500 copies, letterpress-printed in England at the press of Villiers Publications, Holloway, London, in January 1957 for City Lights in San Francisco. The book is catalogued as Cook 6 in Ralph T. Cook's descriptive bibliography of City Lights Books (No. 6, pp. 7-8), and a first printing must answer all points there. A price is printed on the rear wrapper near the upper left corner; presence and setting of that printed price is a first-printing point — identification only, no amount recorded here. NOTE: some reference sources date this collection 1956; the imprint date on the book and the recorded month of printing are 1957, and the imprint date is what governs.

## Is this the true first?
US first, and Levertov's American debut — but NOT her first book, and this is the trap. Her true first book is The Double Image, published under the name 'Denise Levertoff' by The Cresset Press, London, 1946 — a UK-only publication with no contemporaneous American edition. Here and Now (City Lights, San Francisco, 1957) is the true first of this title and has no British counterpart. Both books are collected, and a collector seeking Levertov's first book wants the 1946 Cresset Press Double Image, not Here and Now. The census claim is confirmed on both points.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition documented — Pocket Poets titles were not club-issued. The reprint trap is City Lights' own second and third printings, which continued in the same series format and are frequently offered as firsts; they are distinguished by the Cook 6 points, chiefly the wrapper-label configuration and the rear-wrapper price setting. Only the initial 500-copy London letterpress printing is the first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Here and Now* by Denise Levertov a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/here-and-now
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.