# Is "The Dolphin" by Robert Lowell a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Dolphin by Robert Lowell (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1973) is identified by: Won the 1974 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. The US FSG and UK Faber editions are both 1973 and near-concurrent; the FSG issue is generally treated as the trade first, though precedence between the two is not firmly settled.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Won the 1974 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
- Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1973; first printing identified by the FSG first-printing statement with the year on the copyright page (FSG used wording such as First printing, 1973)
- Issued in a dust jacket
- A UK Faber edition appeared the same year
- Publisher imprint reads Farrar, Straus & Giroux
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Robert Lowell |
| Publisher | Farrar, Straus & Giroux |
| Year | 1973 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | Won the 1974 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Won the 1974 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1973; first printing identified by the FSG first-printing statement with the year on the copyright page (FSG used wording such as First printing, 1973). Issued in a dust jacket. A UK Faber edition appeared the same year (1973).

## Is this the true first?
The US FSG and UK Faber editions are both 1973 and near-concurrent; the FSG issue is generally treated as the trade first, though precedence between the two is not firmly settled.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book club issue of note; later printings drop the first-printing statement.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Dolphin* by Robert Lowell a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-dolphin
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.