# Is "Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada)" by Pablo Neruda a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada) by Pablo Neruda (Editorial Nascimento, 1924) is identified by: The true first is the original-language Spanish edition, printed by Editorial Nascimento in Santiago in June 1924, when Neruda was 19 — it was his SECOND book (after Crepusculario, 1923), a point sellers who call it his "first book" get wrong. The true first edition is the 1924 Spanish Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada (Editorial Nascimento, Santiago, June 1924).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The true first is the original-language Spanish edition, printed by Editorial Nascimento in Santiago in June 1924, when Neruda was 19 — it was his SECOND book (after Crepusculario, 1923), a point sellers who call it his "first book" get wrong
- Neruda specifically requested an unusually large, square format that "wasted" paper, so the first edition is a square 8vo issued in original printed paper wrappers; because it is a fragile softcover, the presence of intact original printed wrappers (surviving copies are often preserved inside a later custom binding or chemise) is the central collecting point
- The imprint reads Editorial Nascimento, Santiago, 1924, with a plain unillustrated text setting and no frontispiece
- Exact collation is not firmly fixed in the trade (archival descriptions run to roughly 40-odd pages), so treat any precise leaf count and any claimed priority states cautiously
- Publisher imprint reads Editorial Nascimento
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Pablo Neruda |
| Publisher | Editorial Nascimento |
| Year | 1924 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | The true first is the original-language Spanish edition, printed by Editorial Nascimento in Santiago in June 1924, when Neruda was 19 — it… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
The true first is the original-language Spanish edition, printed by Editorial Nascimento in Santiago in June 1924, when Neruda was 19 — it was his SECOND book (after Crepusculario, 1923), a point sellers who call it his "first book" get wrong. Neruda specifically requested an unusually large, square format that "wasted" paper, so the first edition is a square 8vo issued in original printed paper wrappers; because it is a fragile softcover, the presence of intact original printed wrappers (surviving copies are often preserved inside a later custom binding or chemise) is the central collecting point. The imprint reads Editorial Nascimento, Santiago, 1924, with a plain unillustrated text setting and no frontispiece. Exact collation is not firmly fixed in the trade (archival descriptions run to roughly 40-odd pages), so treat any precise leaf count and any claimed priority states cautiously.

## Is this the true first?
The true first edition is the 1924 Spanish Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada (Editorial Nascimento, Santiago, June 1924). A precedence trap: Neruda later revised the text for a subsequent Nascimento edition in 1932 (often called the "definitive" edition), altering wording in several poems, so the 1924 Nascimento printing is the only true first-issue text — later Nascimento printings carry the revised version. The first English-language edition is Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, translated by poet W. S. Merwin, published by Jonathan Cape (London) in 1969 as a bilingual (Spanish recto / English verso) volume, issued simultaneously in wrappers (white wrappers in a pink printed dust jacket) and in hardcover; the first U.S. edition followed the same year, 1969, from Grossman Publishers (New York).

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
This title is overwhelmingly encountered in later Nascimento/Losada Spanish printings and in modern paperback reprints (Losada, Cátedra, Seix Barral, etc.); none of these are the first edition. No prominent U.S. book-club edition exists for the original Spanish work. For the English Merwin translation, watch for later Cape reprints (including the "Cape Editions, 38" series printing), Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics and Penguin Classics dual-language editions, and Chronicle/New Directions printings — all later than the 1969 Cape/Grossman first. The commonest trap overall is a genuine early Nascimento Spanish copy that is actually the 1932 revised edition rather than the 1924 first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada)* by Pablo Neruda a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/twenty-love-poems-and-a-song-of-despair
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.