3 John Ashbery first editions are documented on this shelf, from Some Trees (1956) to Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (1975) across 3 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that John Ashbery title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.
Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a John Ashbery copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- Some Trees — 1956 · Yale University PressAshbery's first full-length book, chosen by W. H. Auden for the Yale Series of Younger Poets (volume 52, Auden foreword). Yale University Press first printing in black cloth lettered in gilt on the spine, in the printed yellow dust jacket. Scarce in fine condition with jacket. US true first; the Yale Younger Poets / Auden selection. One of the more sought-after modern poetry debuts. No book-club edition. Later Yale printings carry printing statements.
- The Tennis Court Oath — 1962 · Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, ConnecticutWesleyan University Press, Middletown CT, 1962, in the Wesleyan Poetry Program; octavo, 94 pages, collecting 30 poems. Ashbery's second trade book. The controlling point is the copyright-page statement: Wesleyan stated "First Edition" or "First Printing" on the copyright page and noted subsequent printings, and ABAA-catalogued 1962 copies are described as "first edition stated." Issued simultaneously in two…. US only. Wesleyan University Press, Middletown CT, 1962 is the true first, issued simultaneously in cloth and in wrappers; no separate British edition of The Tennis Court Oath from this period is documented, and the volume remained in print through Wesleyan. The census claim of US-only precedence and dual cloth/wrappers issue is confirmed. No book-club edition documented. Wesleyan noted subsequent printings on the copyright page, so later printings are identified by a printing statement replacing or supplementing the first-edition designation — a catalogued 1968 third printing in the same grey cloth circulates and is regularly mistaken for the first. Because the cloth binding was continued unchanged across printings, binding alone will not….
- Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror — 1975 · Viking PressViking Press first edition, 1975, in quarter blue cloth over olive/greenish-brown paper-covered boards lettered in green on the spine, in dust jacket priced on the front flap. The cloth hardcover is the true first; reportedly about 3,500 copies. Swept the 1976 Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, and National Book Critics Circle Award (the rare triple). US true first in cloth. The paperback editions are NOT simultaneous: a Penguin paperback (US) and a Carcanet Press edition (UK) followed in 1976. There was no concurrent 1975 trade-paperback issue to distinguish from the cloth. No book-club edition. Correction: the original record's 'simultaneous Viking Compass paperback' could not be verified and appears inaccurate; the paperbacks (Penguin US, Carcanet UK) appeared the following year, 1975.
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