Mohn und Gedächtnis

Both books belong in a serious reference, and the distinction is one of definition rather than doubt. Der Sand aus den Urnen (A. Sexl, Vienna, 1948) is Celan's first book and the first German-language appearance of 'Todesfuge'; Mohn und Gedächtnis (DVA, Stuttgart, 1952) is the first edition Celan himself acknowledged — German auction cataloguing describes it as the first book publication recognised by the author — and is the first obtainable book for effectively all collectors. Note also that 'Todesfuge' had already appeared in print before either book, in Petre Solomon's Romanian translation as 'Tangoul morţii' in Contemporanul (Bucharest, May 1947), which was also the first appearance of the pseudonym 'Celan'; the 1948 Vienna book is the first German printing, not the first printing. No English edition has any precedence.