The Orators: An English Study

Faber & Faber, London, 1932 is the true first and the census claim is confirmed for the UK. The census's US claim is wrong and is corrected here: the text first reached America in 1934, inside Random House's omnibus Poems (New York, 1934) — Auden's first American book — which gathered Poems, The Orators and The Dance of Death. Random House's 1967 volume is the first SEPARATE American edition and prints the revised third-edition text of 1966 (foreword added, one Ode dropped, cuts and changes throughout), so it is a first-thus, not a first edition, and dealers who catalogue it correctly say 'first separate American edition'. Auden had already revised the book for Faber's second edition of 1934; that is a distinct edition, not a later impression of the 1932 sheets.