# Is "The Collected Prose" by Elizabeth Bishop a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Collected Prose by Elizabeth Bishop (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1984) is identified by: Edited by Robert Giroux. US FSG; posthumous first-thus gathering of Bishop's prose, arranged in fiction and nonfiction.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Edited by Robert Giroux
- First edition, first printing, FSG; pale blue cloth boards with black spine panel and gilt titles
- First printing identified by the FSG number line ending in 1 per convention of the era
- Publisher imprint reads Farrar, Straus & Giroux
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Elizabeth Bishop |
| Publisher | Farrar, Straus & Giroux |
| Year | 1984 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Edited by Robert Giroux |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
Edited by Robert Giroux. First edition, first printing, FSG; pale blue cloth boards with black spine panel and gilt titles. First printing identified by the FSG number line ending in 1 per convention of the era.

## Is this the true first?
US FSG; posthumous first-thus gathering of Bishop's prose, arranged in fiction and nonfiction.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book club edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Collected Prose* by Elizabeth Bishop a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-collected-prose
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-03.