# Is "In a Green Night: Poems 1948–1960" by Derek Walcott a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of In a Green Night: Poems 1948–1960 by Derek Walcott (Jonathan Cape, 1962) is identified by: Jonathan Cape (London) first edition, first impression, 'first published 1962' so stated; quarter cloth over patterned paper boards with a priced dust jacket, around 79 pages. UK Cape is the true first as Walcott's first book published outside the Caribbean.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Jonathan Cape (London) first edition, first impression, 'first published 1962' so stated; quarter cloth over patterned paper boards with a priced dust jacket, around 79 pages
- Walcott's first collection issued by a major international publisher
- Publisher imprint reads Jonathan Cape
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Derek Walcott |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape |
| Year | 1962 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | Jonathan Cape (London) first edition, first impression, 'first published 1962' so stated; quarter cloth over patterned paper boards with a… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Jonathan Cape (London) first edition, first impression, 'first published 1962' so stated; quarter cloth over patterned paper boards with a priced dust jacket, around 79 pages. Walcott's first collection issued by a major international publisher.

## Is this the true first?
UK Cape is the true first as Walcott's first book published outside the Caribbean. It is not his earliest book overall — privately and locally printed West Indian volumes (25 Poems, 1948; Epitaph for the Young; Poems) preceded it. Among his commercially distributed trade books this is the earliest and is much scarcer than his later Farrar, Straus and Giroux titles.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition; later printings add a printing statement.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *In a Green Night: Poems 1948–1960* by Derek Walcott a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/in-a-green-night-poems-1948-1960
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.