# Is "Letters to a Young Poet" by Rainer Maria Rilke a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke (Insel-Verlag, Leipzig, 1929) is identified by: German true first 'Briefe an einen jungen Dichter,' Insel-Verlag, Leipzig, 1929, issued in the Insel-Bücherei series as volume number 406 (posthumous — Rilke died December 1926); it collects the ten letters to the young cadet Franz Xaver Kappus (1903–1908) with a foreword by Kappus, published with the cooperation of Rilke's widow Clara and daughter Ruth. Original-language true first = Insel-Verlag, Leipzig, 1929 (Insel-Bücherei No.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- German true first 'Briefe an einen jungen Dichter,' Insel-Verlag, Leipzig, 1929, issued in the Insel-Bücherei series as volume number 406 (posthumous — Rilke died December 1926); it collects the ten letters to the young cadet Franz Xaver Kappus (1903–1908) with a foreword by Kappus, published with the cooperation of Rilke's widow Clara and daughter Ruth
- First-issue Insel-Bücherei volumes are identified by the series number on the spine label and the matching early imprint state
- First English is 'Letters to a Young Poet' (trans
- M.D. Herter Norton), W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 1934 (translation copyright 1934); a separate, later 1954 'revised' Norton and Reginald Snell's Sidgwick & Jackson (London) translation are different, later texts
- Publisher imprint reads Insel-Verlag, Leipzig
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Rainer Maria Rilke |
| Publisher | Insel-Verlag, Leipzig |
| Year | 1929 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | German true first 'Briefe an einen jungen Dichter,' Insel-Verlag, Leipzig, 1929, issued in the Insel-Bücherei series as volume number 406… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
German true first 'Briefe an einen jungen Dichter,' Insel-Verlag, Leipzig, 1929, issued in the Insel-Bücherei series as volume number 406 (posthumous — Rilke died December 1926); it collects the ten letters to the young cadet Franz Xaver Kappus (1903–1908) with a foreword by Kappus, published with the cooperation of Rilke's widow Clara and daughter Ruth. First-issue Insel-Bücherei volumes are identified by the series number on the spine label and the matching early imprint state. First English is 'Letters to a Young Poet' (trans. M.D. Herter Norton), W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 1934 (translation copyright 1934); a separate, later 1954 'revised' Norton and Reginald Snell's Sidgwick & Jackson (London) translation are different, later texts.

## Is this the true first?
Original-language true first = Insel-Verlag, Leipzig, 1929 (Insel-Bücherei No. 406). First English = W.W. Norton, New York, 1934 (M.D. Herter Norton) — US precedes UK; the first British translation (Reginald Snell, Sidgwick & Jackson) did not appear until 1945 (some sources 1950), well after the Norton first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Insel-Bücherei No. 406 was reprinted many times under the same number, so distinguish the 1929 first issue by early-state imprint/printing details, not the series number alone. The 1954 'revised' Norton is a later text state, not the 1934 first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Letters to a Young Poet* by Rainer Maria Rilke a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/letters-to-a-young-poet
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.