# Is "The Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara" by Frank O'Hara (ed. Donald Allen) a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara by Frank O'Hara (ed. Donald Allen) (Alfred A. Knopf, 1971) is identified by: Knopf first edition with 'First Edition' stated on the copyright page and the Borzoi colophon. US true first and the first collected gathering; many poems appear in book form here for the first time.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Knopf first edition with 'First Edition' stated on the copyright page and the Borzoi colophon
- Edited by Donald Allen, introduction by John Ashbery
- The first-issue dust jacket reproduces Larry Rivers' nude portrait of O'Hara; it was withdrawn after objections from the O'Hara family and replaced by a typographic (plain) second-issue jacket
- Large dust-jacketed volume of about 586 pages
- Publisher imprint reads Alfred A. Knopf
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Frank O'Hara (ed. Donald Allen) |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
| Year | 1971 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | Knopf first edition with 'First Edition' stated on the copyright page and the Borzoi colophon |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Knopf first edition with 'First Edition' stated on the copyright page and the Borzoi colophon. Edited by Donald Allen, introduction by John Ashbery. The first-issue dust jacket reproduces Larry Rivers' nude portrait of O'Hara; it was withdrawn after objections from the O'Hara family and replaced by a typographic (plain) second-issue jacket. Large dust-jacketed volume of about 586 pages.

## Is this the true first?
US true first and the first collected gathering; many poems appear in book form here for the first time. The first-issue Larry Rivers nude jacket is the key collecting point.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition. Correction: the National Book Award for Poetry was shared in 1972 (with Howard Moss's Selected Poems), not won outright. Later printings drop the 'First Edition' statement.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara* by Frank O'Hara (ed. Donald Allen) a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-collected-poems-of-frank-ohara
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.