# Is "The Bean Eaters" by Gwendolyn Brooks a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Bean Eaters by Gwendolyn Brooks (Harper & Brothers, New York, 1960) is identified by: First printings state 'FIRST EDITION' on the copyright page together with the Harper letter code 'C-K'. US only — census claim confirmed.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First printings state 'FIRST EDITION' on the copyright page together with the Harper letter code 'C-K'
- Under the Harper & Brothers code the first letter is the month of printing and the second the year (the letter J is skipped throughout); on the post-1937 cycle C = March and K = 1960, so C-K reads March 1960 and is correct for the first printing
- A different code, or absence of the 'First Edition' statement, marks a reprint
- Collation octavo, [6], 7–71, [1] pp
- Bound in red cloth stamped in silver on the spine (and on the front board), in a priced dust jacket with the price present at the front flap
- Reference: Blockson 4752
- Publisher imprint reads Harper & Brothers, New York

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Gwendolyn Brooks |
| Publisher | Harper & Brothers, New York |
| Year | 1960 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | First printings state 'FIRST EDITION' on the copyright page together with the Harper letter code 'C-K' |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First printings state 'FIRST EDITION' on the copyright page together with the Harper letter code 'C-K'. Under the Harper & Brothers code the first letter is the month of printing and the second the year (the letter J is skipped throughout); on the post-1937 cycle C = March and K = 1960, so C-K reads March 1960 and is correct for the first printing. A different code, or absence of the 'First Edition' statement, marks a reprint. Collation octavo, [6], 7–71, [1] pp. Bound in red cloth stamped in silver on the spine (and on the front board), in a priced dust jacket with the price present at the front flap. Reference: Blockson 4752. Review copies exist with the publisher's typed slip laid in. The First Edition Rare Books and Captain Ahab's Rare Books (ABAA) independently give the stated 'First Edition' plus C-K code and the red cloth with silver stamping; Burnside Rare Books (ABAA) independently confirms the red cloth stamped in silver.

## Is this the true first?
US only — census claim confirmed. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1960 is the true first; no contemporaneous British edition is recorded. Note a precision point on the census's 'contains We Real Cool': the poem had a prior periodical appearance in Poetry (September 1959), so The Bean Eaters is its first appearance in book form, not its first appearance in print.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue documented for this title. The reprint tell is the copyright page: later Harper printings drop the 'First Edition' statement and/or carry a different letter code. Later collected appearances of these poems within Brooks's selected and collected volumes are not editions of this book.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Bean Eaters* by Gwendolyn Brooks a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-bean-eaters
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.