# Is "The Branch Will Not Break" by James Wright a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Branch Will Not Break by James Wright (Wesleyan University Press, Middletown CT, 1963) is identified by: First printing is identified by Wesleyan University Press house practice, corroborated by three independent identification guides: the copyright page of a first states either 'First Edition' or 'First Printing', and subsequent printings are noted on the copyright page — so any copy carrying a later-printing note is not a first. US only.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First printing is identified by Wesleyan University Press house practice, corroborated by three independent identification guides: the copyright page of a first states either 'First Edition' or 'First Printing', and subsequent printings are noted on the copyright page — so any copy carrying a later-printing note is not a first
- Issued simultaneously in cloth and in wrappers, and both are collected as first-printing issues
- The cloth issue is bound in gray cloth and belongs in its dust jacket, unclipped with the price present at the front flap; the wrappers issue was issued without a jacket and should not be mistaken for a later paperback reprint
- Collates 59 pp., 21 cm; published 15 May 1963 in the Wesleyan Poetry Series
- Wright's transitional volume, departing from the formal style of his earlier books
- Publisher imprint reads Wesleyan University Press, Middletown CT
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | James Wright |
| Publisher | Wesleyan University Press, Middletown CT |
| Year | 1963 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | First printing is identified by Wesleyan University Press house practice, corroborated by three independent identification guides: the… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First printing is identified by Wesleyan University Press house practice, corroborated by three independent identification guides: the copyright page of a first states either 'First Edition' or 'First Printing', and subsequent printings are noted on the copyright page — so any copy carrying a later-printing note is not a first. Issued simultaneously in cloth and in wrappers, and both are collected as first-printing issues. The cloth issue is bound in gray cloth and belongs in its dust jacket, unclipped with the price present at the front flap; the wrappers issue was issued without a jacket and should not be mistaken for a later paperback reprint. Collates 59 pp., 21 cm; published 15 May 1963 in the Wesleyan Poetry Series. Wright's transitional volume, departing from the formal style of his earlier books.

## Is this the true first?
US only. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1963. No British first edition of the collection is recorded. First thus traps: the poems are reset in Wright's Collected Poems (Wesleyan, 1971) and in Above the River: The Complete Poems (1990); Wesleyan has also kept the title continuously in print under ISBN 0819510181, so copies bearing that ISBN in commerce are late printings, not firsts.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition documented. The practical confusion is the simultaneous first-printing wrappers issue versus the many later Wesleyan paperback printings of the same title — these are separated by the printing note Wesleyan adds to the copyright page on subsequent printings, not by binding format.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Branch Will Not Break* by James Wright a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-branch-will-not-break
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.