# Is "Spoon River Anthology" by Edgar Lee Masters a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters (The Macmillan Company, New York, 1915) is identified by: Title page reads "Spoon River Anthology | By Edgar Lee Masters | New York | The Macmillan Company | 1915." The first printing's copyright page reads "Copyright, 1914 and 1915, By William Marion Reedy" (the poems had run serially in Reedy's Mirror), then "Copyright, 1915, By The Macmillan Company," then "Set up and electrotyped. American origin: The Macmillan Company, New York, April 1915 is the true first in book form.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Title page reads "Spoon River Anthology | By Edgar Lee Masters | New York | The Macmillan Company | 1915." The first printing's copyright page reads "Copyright, 1914 and 1915, By William Marion Reedy" (the poems had run serially in Reedy's Mirror), then "Copyright, 1915, By The Macmillan Company," then "Set up and electrotyped
- Published April, 1915." — and stops there
- That terminal line is the test: Macmillan's US house did not begin stating "First printing" on the copyright page until mid-1936, so the first printing is identified by the absence of any reprint line, while the next printing adds "Reprinted May, 1915." (the widely circulated digitized Macmillan copy carries that added line and is therefore a May reprint, not the first)
- Collation is octavo, xvii, 248 pp., with publisher's advertisements at the rear; the binding is green to bluish-green cloth, lettered in gilt with black rule and detailing to spine and front cover
- Dealers additionally cite a textblock measurement point — roughly the printed price inch across the top on the first issue against roughly 1 inch on the later issue — but that is a dealer-reported secondary check and the copyright-page line should govern
- Publisher imprint reads The Macmillan Company, New York
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Edgar Lee Masters |
| Publisher | The Macmillan Company, New York |
| Year | 1915 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | Title page reads "Spoon River Anthology | By Edgar Lee Masters | New York | The Macmillan Company | 1915." The first printing's copyright… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Title page reads "Spoon River Anthology | By Edgar Lee Masters | New York | The Macmillan Company | 1915." The first printing's copyright page reads "Copyright, 1914 and 1915, By William Marion Reedy" (the poems had run serially in Reedy's Mirror), then "Copyright, 1915, By The Macmillan Company," then "Set up and electrotyped. Published April, 1915." — and stops there. That terminal line is the test: Macmillan's US house did not begin stating "First printing" on the copyright page until mid-1936, so the first printing is identified by the absence of any reprint line, while the next printing adds "Reprinted May, 1915." (the widely circulated digitized Macmillan copy carries that added line and is therefore a May reprint, not the first). Collation is octavo, xvii, 248 pp., with publisher's advertisements at the rear; the binding is green to bluish-green cloth, lettered in gilt with black rule and detailing to spine and front cover. Dealers additionally cite a textblock measurement point — roughly the printed price inch across the top on the first issue against roughly 1 inch on the later issue — but that is a dealer-reported secondary check and the copyright-page line should govern.

## Is this the true first?
American origin: The Macmillan Company, New York, April 1915 is the true first in book form. The prior serial publication in Reedy's Mirror (St. Louis, 1914–15) under the pseudonym "Webster Ford" is a periodical appearance, not an edition, and survives on the first printing's copyright page as the Reedy copyright line. A London issue from T. Werner Laurie, made up from American sheets, is recorded and is subordinate to the Macmillan first, so there is no UK precedence. The dominant trap is Macmillan's own expanded "New Edition with New Poems" of 1916, which adds roughly three dozen poems (sources differ on the exact count, reported variously as 33, 35 and 36) and is regularly catalogued and offered as a first — it is a first thus only.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No 1915 book-club issue is documented. The printing tells are all on the copyright page: any "Reprinted [month], 1915" or later line appearing beneath "Set up and electrotyped. Published April, 1915." marks a reprint, and the 1916 "New Edition with New Poems" is a separate, expanded setting with its own copyright page and a larger poem count. Modern Dover Thrift, Signet and print-on-demand reprints carry ISBNs and are not editions of the 1915 book.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Spoon River Anthology* by Edgar Lee Masters a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/spoon-river-anthology
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.