# Is "The Waste Land" by T. S. Eliot a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot (Boni and Liveright, 1922) is identified by: First edition in book form, US: Boni & Liveright, New York, December 1922, 1,000 copies (Gallup A6a) -- the first appearance of the poem in book form and the first printing to carry Eliot's Notes. The Boni & Liveright New York edition (December 1922, 1,000 copies) is the true first edition in book form and PRECEDES the UK Hogarth Press edition (1923, about 460 copies, hand-set by Leonard and Virginia Woolf).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition in book form, US: Boni & Liveright, New York, December 1922, 1,000 copies (Gallup A6a) -- the first appearance of the poem in book form and the first printing to carry Eliot's Notes
- Issue is determined by the binding and colophon, NOT by the text: the first 500 copies are in FLEXIBLE black cloth with the hand-stamped limitation number in the colophon about 5 mm high; the second 500 are in stiffer black cloth boards with the colophon number about 2 mm high
- Black cloth lettered in gilt on front cover and spine
- On page 41 (line 339) some copies read 'mountain' and others 'mountan' (a letter that dropped out during the run)
- Gallup records these as two states with NO established priority of issue -- so the page-41 reading alone does not establish precedence
- Use the binding and the colophon-numeral height instead
- Publisher imprint reads Boni and Liveright

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | T. S. Eliot |
| Publisher | Boni and Liveright |
| Year | 1922 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | First edition in book form, US: Boni & Liveright, New York, December 1922, 1,000 copies (Gallup A6a) -- the first appearance of the poem in… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First edition in book form, US: Boni & Liveright, New York, December 1922, 1,000 copies (Gallup A6a) -- the first appearance of the poem in book form and the first printing to carry Eliot's Notes. Issue is determined by the binding and colophon, NOT by the text: the first 500 copies are in FLEXIBLE black cloth with the hand-stamped limitation number in the colophon about 5 mm high; the second 500 are in stiffer black cloth boards with the colophon number about 2 mm high. Black cloth lettered in gilt on front cover and spine. On page 41 (line 339) some copies read 'mountain' and others 'mountan' (a letter that dropped out during the run); Gallup records these as two states with NO established priority of issue -- so the page-41 reading alone does not establish precedence. Use the binding and the colophon-numeral height instead.

## Is this the true first?
The Boni & Liveright New York edition (December 1922, 1,000 copies) is the true first edition in book form and PRECEDES the UK Hogarth Press edition (1923, about 460 copies, hand-set by Leonard and Virginia Woolf). Before either book the poem appeared in periodicals -- The Criterion (London, Oct 1922) and The Dial (New York, Nov 1922). Within the Boni & Liveright first printing, the earlier ISSUE is the flexible-cloth binding with the 5 mm colophon numeral; the 'mountain' / 'mountan' page-41 variants are states without priority and must not be used to rank copies.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book club. A Boni & Liveright 'second edition' (1923) revises the limitation statement. The principal confusion is US first (Boni & Liveright 1922) vs. UK first (Hogarth 1923) -- the US precedes. Verify the 1,000-copy first printing by the black-cloth binding and the colophon-numeral height (about 5 mm = the first 500); do not rely on the page-41 'mountain' / 'mountan' reading, which has no established issue priority.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Waste Land* by T. S. Eliot a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-waste-land
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.