# Is "The Opening of the Field" by Robert Duncan a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Opening of the Field by Robert Duncan (Grove Press, New York, 1960) is identified by: Grove Press, New York, October 1960, issued as a Grove Press Evergreen Original — a trade paperback original in glossy illustrated wrappers, octavo, 96 pages, 21 cm. US only for the true first: Grove Press, New York, 1960, in wrappers.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Grove Press, New York, October 1960, issued as a Grove Press Evergreen Original — a trade paperback original in glossy illustrated wrappers, octavo, 96 pages, 21 cm
- Duncan's first book with a trade publisher
- Cover design by Roy Kuhlman; frontispiece artwork by Jess (Duncan's partner), whose inclusion Duncan insisted upon and over which an earlier Macmillan agreement collapsed; the title and author's name are set in what is believed to be Duncan's own hand
- The controlling point is the copyright page: Grove Press always noted first editions and subsequent printings on the copyright page in this period, and ABAA-catalogued first printings are described as 'first printing (stated).' A stated first printing on the copyright page is the identification; absence of the statement, or any later printing statement, rules the copy out
- The book is catalogued as Bertholf A11 in Robert J. Bertholf's descriptive bibliography of Duncan
- CAUTION — wrapper coloring is described inconsistently by cataloguers (white and pastel blue; white and grey glossy); do not use wrapper color as a decisive point
- Publisher imprint reads Grove Press, New York

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Robert Duncan |
| Publisher | Grove Press, New York |
| Year | 1960 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | Grove Press, New York, October 1960, issued as a Grove Press Evergreen Original — a trade paperback original in glossy illustrated… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Grove Press, New York, October 1960, issued as a Grove Press Evergreen Original — a trade paperback original in glossy illustrated wrappers, octavo, 96 pages, 21 cm. Duncan's first book with a trade publisher. Cover design by Roy Kuhlman; frontispiece artwork by Jess (Duncan's partner), whose inclusion Duncan insisted upon and over which an earlier Macmillan agreement collapsed; the title and author's name are set in what is believed to be Duncan's own hand. The controlling point is the copyright page: Grove Press always noted first editions and subsequent printings on the copyright page in this period, and ABAA-catalogued first printings are described as 'first printing (stated).' A stated first printing on the copyright page is the identification; absence of the statement, or any later printing statement, rules the copy out. The book is catalogued as Bertholf A11 in Robert J. Bertholf's descriptive bibliography of Duncan. CAUTION — wrapper coloring is described inconsistently by cataloguers (white and pastel blue; white and grey glossy); do not use wrapper color as a decisive point. No clothbound Grove issue of the 1960 first is documented — offered hardcovers are later editions by other publishers.

## Is this the true first?
US only for the true first: Grove Press, New York, 1960, in wrappers. The first English edition is Jonathan Cape, London, 1969 — a hardcover in marbled paper-covered boards with brown gilt backstrip, some nine years later and well subordinate to the Grove printing; an uncorrected proof of that Cape edition also circulates. A dealer record dating the Cape edition to 1960 is an outlier and is contradicted by ABAA cataloguing and by the presence of an ISBN (0224616270) on the Cape volume, which is inconsistent with a 1960 imprint. The census claim of US-only precedence is confirmed.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition documented. Two reprint traps: the Jonathan Cape (London) 1969 hardcover, which is a first-thus (first English edition) and is regularly mis-offered as a first edition on the strength of its hardcover binding; and the New Directions paperbook reissue (ISBN 0811204804), which is a later trade edition. Later Grove printings are identified by the printing statement on the copyright page. Grove's own dust jackets, where present on other titles, carry letter codes on the rear panel for later jacket printings — first-printing jackets lack the code.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Opening of the Field* by Robert Duncan a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-opening-of-the-field
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.