# Is "Poet in New York" by Federico García Lorca a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Poet in New York by Federico García Lorca (W.W. Norton, New York, 1940) is identified by: The first edition is The Poet in New York and Other Poems, W.W. Posthumous work with parallel 1940 firsts.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The first edition is The Poet in New York and Other Poems, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 1940 — a bilingual volume (Spanish text with Rolfe Humphries' English translation), with a short introduction and biographical note, issued in a pictorial dust jacket
- ABAA dealer consensus dates it several weeks ahead of the Spanish-only Poeta en Nueva York from José Bergamín's Editorial Séneca, Mexico City, 1940 (Norton published late May 1940 against the Séneca colophon of 15 June 1940)
- Both are posthumous (Lorca was murdered in 1936) and derive from different manuscript sources — the origin of the long textual-authenticity debate raised by Eutimio Martín in 1972, which concerns which text is authoritative, NOT which book appeared first
- Publisher imprint reads W.W. Norton, New York
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Federico García Lorca |
| Publisher | W.W. Norton, New York |
| Year | 1940 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | The first edition is The Poet in New York and Other Poems, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 1940 — a bilingual volume (Spanish text with… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
The first edition is The Poet in New York and Other Poems, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 1940 — a bilingual volume (Spanish text with Rolfe Humphries' English translation), with a short introduction and biographical note, issued in a pictorial dust jacket. ABAA dealer consensus dates it several weeks ahead of the Spanish-only Poeta en Nueva York from José Bergamín's Editorial Séneca, Mexico City, 1940 (Norton published late May 1940 against the Séneca colophon of 15 June 1940). Both are posthumous (Lorca was murdered in 1936) and derive from different manuscript sources — the origin of the long textual-authenticity debate raised by Eutimio Martín in 1972, which concerns which text is authoritative, NOT which book appeared first.

## Is this the true first?
Posthumous work with parallel 1940 firsts. Contrary to the 'priority famously disputed' framing, ABAA dealers (Burnside, Between the Covers, Raptis, Ken Lopez) agree the New York Norton edition is the true first and precedes the Mexico City Séneca edition — so the US bilingual edition precedes the original-language Spanish printing. Name both: Norton 1940 (first edition / first bilingual appearance) and Séneca 1940 (first Spanish-only edition); both are collected. No London/UK edition belongs to the early line.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Poet in New York* by Federico García Lorca a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/poet-in-new-york
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.