# Is "The Complete Collected Poems 1906-1938" by William Carlos Williams a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Complete Collected Poems 1906-1938 by William Carlos Williams (New Directions, 1938) is identified by: First edition, first printing (about 1,500 copies), in a dust jacket. US New Directions; the major collected first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, first printing (about 1,500 copies), in a dust jacket
- Binding priority matters: copies in green buckram were bound first (1938-39) and precede the blue-buckram copies (a group of about 400 bound in 1940)
- Genuinely scarce in the dust jacket
- Wallace A20a
- Publisher imprint reads New Directions
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | William Carlos Williams |
| Publisher | New Directions |
| Year | 1938 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, first printing (about 1,500 copies), in a dust jacket |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
First edition, first printing (about 1,500 copies), in a dust jacket. Binding priority matters: copies in green buckram were bound first (1938-39) and precede the blue-buckram copies (a group of about 400 bound in 1940). Genuinely scarce in the dust jacket. Wallace A20a.

## Is this the true first?
US New Directions; the major collected first. Green-buckram binding precedes blue.

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

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Complete Collected Poems 1906-1938* by William Carlos Williams a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-complete-collected-poems-1906-1938
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.