# Is "Wodwo" by Ted Hughes a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Wodwo by Ted Hughes (Faber and Faber, London, 1967) is identified by: First edition, first impression, Faber and Faber, London, 1967. UK is the true first: Faber and Faber, London, 1967.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, first impression, Faber and Faber, London, 1967
- 8vo, in three parts — poems, five short stories and a radio play
- Bound in a red cloth spine lettered in gilt with grey/sage printed cloth sides, in dust jacket; the jacket should be present and priced (price present at the flap)
- Faber practice fixes the impression: before 1968 the year on the copyright page is set in Roman numerals, so the first impression reads 'First published in mcmlxvii by Faber and Faber Limited', and Faber notes subsequent printings on the copyright page — any added impression line denotes a reprint
- One dealer records a print run of 3,000 copies; that figure rests on a single source and is uncorroborated
- Publisher imprint reads Faber and Faber, London
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Ted Hughes |
| Publisher | Faber and Faber, London |
| Year | 1967 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | First edition, first impression, Faber and Faber, London, 1967 |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First edition, first impression, Faber and Faber, London, 1967. 8vo, in three parts — poems, five short stories and a radio play. Bound in a red cloth spine lettered in gilt with grey/sage printed cloth sides, in dust jacket; the jacket should be present and priced (price present at the flap). Faber practice fixes the impression: before 1968 the year on the copyright page is set in Roman numerals, so the first impression reads 'First published in mcmlxvii by Faber and Faber Limited', and Faber notes subsequent printings on the copyright page — any added impression line denotes a reprint. One dealer records a print run of 3,000 copies; that figure rests on a single source and is uncorroborated.

## Is this the true first?
UK is the true first: Faber and Faber, London, 1967. The first American edition — Harper & Row, New York, 1967 — followed within the same year and is bound quite differently: half blue cloth over brown paper boards, silver decoration to the front board and silver lettering to the spine, collating [6], 7-184, [8] pp. Imprint and binding are the quickest separators. The census note giving a May 1967 UK date could not be confirmed; inscribed copies dated 8 June and 13 July 1967 are consistent with a mid-1967 UK publication, but the exact month is undocumented in the sources consulted.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue documented. The common trap is the Harper & Row 1967 American edition offered as 'the 1967 first edition' — same year, but later. Faber's own later impressions are identified by the added impression statement on the copyright page; the Roman-numeral 'mcmlxvii' alone does not prove a first impression if a reprint line is also present.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Wodwo* by Ted Hughes a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/wodwo
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.