# Is "The Tennis Court Oath" by John Ashbery a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Tennis Court Oath by John Ashbery (Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, Connecticut, 1962) is identified by: Wesleyan University Press, Middletown CT, 1962, in the Wesleyan Poetry Program; octavo, 94 pages, collecting 30 poems. US only.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Wesleyan University Press, Middletown CT, 1962, in the Wesleyan Poetry Program; octavo, 94 pages, collecting 30 poems
- Ashbery's second trade book
- The controlling point is the copyright-page statement: Wesleyan stated "First Edition" or "First Printing" on the copyright page and noted subsequent printings, and ABAA-catalogued 1962 copies are described as "first edition stated." Issued simultaneously in two formats — a clothbound issue in publisher's grey cloth over boards, lettered on the spine, in a pictorial dust jacket, and a softcover issue in pictorial printed wrappers
- The cloth issue is markedly the scarcer of the two
- Jackets on the cloth issue are priced at the flap; some copies carry a publisher's revised price sticker laid over the original printed price, which is a publisher's-issue feature rather than a later state
- CAUTION — the jacket and spine-stamping color descriptions in wide circulation (red and black spine stamping; jacket in black and salmon pink) are drawn from a catalogued 1968 third printing and have not been independently confirmed against a collated 1962 first printing; do not rely on jacket color as a first-printing point
- Publisher imprint reads Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, Connecticut

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | John Ashbery |
| Publisher | Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, Connecticut |
| Year | 1962 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | Wesleyan University Press, Middletown CT, 1962, in the Wesleyan Poetry Program; octavo, 94 pages, collecting 30 poems |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Wesleyan University Press, Middletown CT, 1962, in the Wesleyan Poetry Program; octavo, 94 pages, collecting 30 poems. Ashbery's second trade book. The controlling point is the copyright-page statement: Wesleyan stated "First Edition" or "First Printing" on the copyright page and noted subsequent printings, and ABAA-catalogued 1962 copies are described as "first edition stated." Issued simultaneously in two formats — a clothbound issue in publisher's grey cloth over boards, lettered on the spine, in a pictorial dust jacket, and a softcover issue in pictorial printed wrappers. The cloth issue is markedly the scarcer of the two. Jackets on the cloth issue are priced at the flap; some copies carry a publisher's revised price sticker laid over the original printed price, which is a publisher's-issue feature rather than a later state. CAUTION — the jacket and spine-stamping color descriptions in wide circulation (red and black spine stamping; jacket in black and salmon pink) are drawn from a catalogued 1968 third printing and have not been independently confirmed against a collated 1962 first printing; do not rely on jacket color as a first-printing point. Both formats being simultaneous, neither the cloth nor the wrappers issue has bibliographic precedence.

## Is this the true first?
US only. Wesleyan University Press, Middletown CT, 1962 is the true first, issued simultaneously in cloth and in wrappers; no separate British edition of The Tennis Court Oath from this period is documented, and the volume remained in print through Wesleyan. The census claim of US-only precedence and dual cloth/wrappers issue is confirmed.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition documented. Wesleyan noted subsequent printings on the copyright page, so later printings are identified by a printing statement replacing or supplementing the first-edition designation — a catalogued 1968 third printing in the same grey cloth circulates and is regularly mistaken for the first. Because the cloth binding was continued unchanged across printings, binding alone will not distinguish a first; the copyright page must be checked.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Tennis Court Oath* by John Ashbery a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-tennis-court-oath
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.