Is My A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle a First Edition?

The points of issue

• True first: William Blackwood & Sons Ltd, Edinburgh and London, 1926; octavo (approx
• 19 x 13 cm), viii + 108 pp, with the poet's glossary of Scots at the end
• The title page gives the author as 'Hugh M'Diarmid' — the M-apostrophe form, not 'MacDiarmid' — which is a fast first-look tell
• First-issue binding: original dark blue cloth, spine and front board lettered in gilt, the front board with a double-rule border in blind enclosing a gilt vignette; the jacket is a thick sandy/buff sugar-paper typographic wrapper and is very seldom present
• A secondary binding exists within the same printing (Blackwood's own records, as reported by the collector Richie McCaffery, account for 525 copies across primary and secondary bindings), so the 1926 Blackwood imprint and the viii + 108 collation — not the binding alone — settle the edition; dealers describe the blue cloth with gilt vignette as 'the correct first issue'

How William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and London marked a first edition

• No explicit edition statement on Victorian firsts: identify by title-page date, absence of 'New Edition' wording, correct imprint ('William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London'), and complete volumes with half-title…
• Many Blackwood novels first appeared serially in Blackwood's Magazine before book form — confirm the first BOOK edition versus the serial and versus cheaper later reissues.

Full William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and London first-edition guide →

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Check for a number line or dated printing — the lowest number present is the printing; a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the tell.
3. Verify this is the American true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
4. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
5. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

Scottish original and the only edition that counts as the first: Blackwood, Edinburgh and London, 1926. There was no contemporaneous American or London-trade edition. The first US publication came decades later — an annotated edition from the University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, 1971 — which is a 'first thus', as are the later Scottish reprints (the 200 Burns Club, Edinburgh, 1956; Caledonian Press; Castle Wynd Printers) and the Scottish Academic Press annotated texts. Sales of the 1926 sheets were poor by MacDiarmid's own account and copies were pulped, which is why the first is scarce and why later reset texts dominate the market.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club edition is documented. The reprint tells are simply imprint and setting: any copy not bearing the William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh 1926 imprint with the viii + 108 collation is a later reset text — the 1956 200 Burns Club issue, the Caledonian Press and Castle Wynd Printers reprints, the Scottish Academic Press annotated editions and the Birlinn (2008) issue among them.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle a first edition?

A first edition of A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle by Hugh MacDiarmid (William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and London) is identified by: True first: William Blackwood & Sons Ltd, Edinburgh and London, 1926; octavo (approx.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A stated first edition, a number line ending in 1, or a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the key. Scottish original and the only edition that counts as the first: Blackwood, Edinburgh and London, 1926.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

No book-club edition is documented. The reprint tells are simply imprint and setting: any copy not bearing the William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh 1926 imprint with the viii + 108 collation is a later reset text — the 1956 200 Burns Club issue, the Caledonian Press and Castle Wynd Printers reprints, the Scottish Academic Press annotated editions and the Birlinn (2008) issue among them.

I have a first edition of A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.