# Is "Last Poems" by A. E. Housman a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Last Poems by A. E. Housman (Grant Richards, London, 1922) is identified by: Published 19 October 1922. UK precedes US.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Published 19 October 1922
- The first-impression point is a punctuation error: the first two lines of poem XXVI on page 52 carry no punctuation marks
- Grant Richards offered to insert an errata slip and Housman refused — 'The blunder will probably enhance the value of the printed pricet edition in the eyes of bibliophiles, an idiotic class' — so the error stands uncorrected in the first impression and was corrected in the reprints, which followed within the same month
- Because those later impressions are also dated 1922, the reading on page 52, not the title-page date, is what identifies the first
- Small octavo in publisher's dark blue cloth, lettered in gilt on the spine and upper board
- Sources consulted give the collation as either 78 or 79 pages, so treat the figure as unsettled
- Publisher imprint reads Grant Richards, London

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | A. E. Housman |
| Publisher | Grant Richards, London |
| Year | 1922 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | Published 19 October 1922 |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Published 19 October 1922. The first-impression point is a punctuation error: the first two lines of poem XXVI on page 52 carry no punctuation marks. Grant Richards offered to insert an errata slip and Housman refused — 'The blunder will probably enhance the value of the printed pricet edition in the eyes of bibliophiles, an idiotic class' — so the error stands uncorrected in the first impression and was corrected in the reprints, which followed within the same month. Because those later impressions are also dated 1922, the reading on page 52, not the title-page date, is what identifies the first. Small octavo in publisher's dark blue cloth, lettered in gilt on the spine and upper board; 41 poems. Sources consulted give the collation as either 78 or 79 pages, so treat the figure as unsettled. The standard reference is the Carter, Sparrow and White bibliography. Dust jackets are recorded on first-impression copies; no jacket state points are documented in the sources consulted, so do not treat any jacket feature as a point.

## Is this the true first?
UK precedes US. Grant Richards (London), 19 October 1922, is the true first. Henry Holt and Company (New York) published the first American edition later the same year — dealer copies record it as printed in November 1922 — and it is a separate edition rather than an issue of the London sheets; both are dated 1922, so the imprint separates them. Last Poems is the companion volume to A Shropshire Lad (1896) and the two are collected together, but note that A Shropshire Lad has its own and considerably thornier precedence and issue history (Kegan Paul, London, 1896, published at the author's expense); none of its points transfer to this book.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition. The reprint risk is the several Grant Richards impressions that followed the first within weeks and are also dated 1922 — these have the page 52 punctuation corrected, which is the reliable discriminator. The 1922 Henry Holt (New York) printing, and all later Holt, trade, and Housman Society printings, are separate editions rather than states of the first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Last Poems* by A. E. Housman a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/last-poems
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.