# Is "The Old Ways" by Gary Snyder a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Old Ways by Gary Snyder (City Lights Books, 1977) is identified by: First edition, a paperback original in glossy pictorial wrappers, City Lights Books, San Francisco 1977; 96 pages, illustrated by Tom Pohrt. True first is the 1977 City Lights wrappered original (paperback original; no hardcover was issued).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, a paperback original in glossy pictorial wrappers, City Lights Books, San Francisco 1977
- 96 pages, illustrated by Tom Pohrt
- Collects six essays: "The Yogin and the Philosopher," "The Politics of Ethnopoetics," "North Beach," "The Dharma Eye of D.A. Levy," "Re-inhabitation," and "The Incredible Survival of Coyote." No clothbound issue
- Publisher imprint reads City Lights Books
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Gary Snyder |
| Publisher | City Lights Books |
| Year | 1977 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, a paperback original in glossy pictorial wrappers, City Lights Books, San Francisco 1977 |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First edition, a paperback original in glossy pictorial wrappers, City Lights Books, San Francisco 1977; 96 pages, illustrated by Tom Pohrt. Collects six essays: "The Yogin and the Philosopher," "The Politics of Ethnopoetics," "North Beach," "The Dharma Eye of D.A. Levy," "Re-inhabitation," and "The Incredible Survival of Coyote." No clothbound issue.

## Is this the true first?
True first is the 1977 City Lights wrappered original (paperback original; no hardcover was issued). Not part of the Pocket Poets series, which is verse rather than essays.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition; issued in wrappers, so no hardcover trade first to distinguish.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Old Ways* by Gary Snyder a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-old-ways
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.