# Is "The Woman at the Washington Zoo" by Randall Jarrell a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Woman at the Washington Zoo by Randall Jarrell (Atheneum, New York, 1960) is identified by: This is a stated first: Atheneum printed "First Edition" on the copyright page of its firsts from its founding through the mid-1980s and only adopted a number row thereafter, so a first printing of The Woman at the Washington Zoo: Poems and Translations carries that copyright-page statement and later printings simply drop it. American origin: Atheneum, New York, 1960 is the true first, and no contemporaneous British edition of this collection is recorded in the sources consulted, so there is no UK-versus-US precedence question.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- This is a stated first: Atheneum printed "First Edition" on the copyright page of its firsts from its founding through the mid-1980s and only adopted a number row thereafter, so a first printing of The Woman at the Washington Zoo: Poems and Translations carries that copyright-page statement and later printings simply drop it
- The book is 65 pp., bound in black buckram (described by dealers as black cloth) stamped in gilt on the spine, and collects poems together with translations, including versions of Rilke
- It was issued in a matching black dust jacket lettered in red, orange and yellow; the collected state has a priced jacket with the price present at the front flap and unclipped
- Dealers also record red-orange endpapers
- Publisher imprint reads Atheneum, New York
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Randall Jarrell |
| Publisher | Atheneum, New York |
| Year | 1960 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | This is a stated first: Atheneum printed "First Edition" on the copyright page of its firsts from its founding through the mid-1980s and… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
This is a stated first: Atheneum printed "First Edition" on the copyright page of its firsts from its founding through the mid-1980s and only adopted a number row thereafter, so a first printing of The Woman at the Washington Zoo: Poems and Translations carries that copyright-page statement and later printings simply drop it. The book is 65 pp., bound in black buckram (described by dealers as black cloth) stamped in gilt on the spine, and collects poems together with translations, including versions of Rilke. It was issued in a matching black dust jacket lettered in red, orange and yellow; the collected state has a priced jacket with the price present at the front flap and unclipped. Dealers also record red-orange endpapers.

## Is this the true first?
American origin: Atheneum, New York, 1960 is the true first, and no contemporaneous British edition of this collection is recorded in the sources consulted, so there is no UK-versus-US precedence question. The volume won the National Book Award for Poetry in 1961. The "first thus" traps are later collected volumes rather than rival firsts: the title poem and the rest of the contents are reprinted in Jarrell's later collected and complete poems, which are new settings and not editions of the 1960 book.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented for this title. The printing tell is simple and reliable: a copyright page lacking the "First Edition" statement is a later Atheneum printing, and a copyright page carrying a number row is later still, since Atheneum only began using number rows in the mid-1980s. A price-clipped jacket does not by itself affect edition identification but removes the flap price that dealers use as a corroborating check on an unsophisticated jacket.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Woman at the Washington Zoo* by Randall Jarrell a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-woman-at-the-washington-zoo
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.