Is My A Lume Spento a First Edition?

The points of issue

• Title page bears the imprint of A. Antonini, Cannaregio 923, Venice, 1908, with the title-page verso noting publication 'in the city of Aldus'
• Pound paid for and supervised the printing himself, on paper left over from the press's recent history of the church
• Collation 2 leaves + 72 pages, about 21 cm; the verso of the dedication leaf and page 58 are blank
• Dedicated to the Philadelphia painter William Brooke Smith, 'Painter, Dreamer of dreams,' who had just died
• Original printed green to green-grey wrappers, largely uncut (dealers report the top edge trimmed and the others uncut); many surviving copies have been rebound or boxed and no longer have the wrappers — Christie's has catalogued a copy in later navy ribbed cloth with the original wrappers not preserved, so absence of wrappers does not by itself disqualify a copy
• No limitation is printed in the book

How to confirm the first-printing statement

Publishers stated first printings differently by era. The decisive tells are a printed “First Edition/First Printing” statement, a number line whose lowest number is 1 (Random House ends at 2), or a dated first printing with no later printings listed. Paste your copyright page into the number-line decoder.

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 UK 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?

The Venice 1908 printing is the true first and precedes all UK and US Pound publication — the census claim is confirmed. There is no original-language question: the poems are in English and only the title is Italian, so the Italian imprint is a printing fact, not a translation-precedence fact. Sequence worth stating precisely: A Lume Spento (Venice, 1908) is Pound's first book; A Quinzaine for This Yule followed later in 1908; Personae (Elkin Mathews, London, 1909) was his first regularly published book. Nothing precedes A Lume Spento.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club issue. The dominant trap is the New Directions (New York, 1965) 'A Lume Spento and Other Early Poems,' printed in roughly 6,500 copies, which reprints A Lume Spento together with A Quinzaine for This Yule plus previously unpublished early poems — and which includes facsimiles of the original 1908 title and dedication pages plus a bibliographic note, which is precisely what misleads a scanner or a hopeful owner. It runs 128 pages with an index, bound in blue cloth spine with patterned boards carrying a photographic image of San Trovaso, Venice on the front board, and was issued in a dust jacket. Three instant disqualifiers for the 1908 Venice printing: a title reading '...and Other Early Poems'; a cloth-and-boards binding rather than printed wrappers; a frontispiece portrait of Pound.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of A Lume Spento a first edition?

A first edition of A Lume Spento by Ezra Pound (Printed by A. Antonini, Venice) is identified by: Title page bears the imprint of A.

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. The Venice 1908 printing is the true first and precedes all UK and US Pound publication — the census claim is confirmed.

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

No book-club issue. The dominant trap is the New Directions (New York, 1965) 'A Lume Spento and Other Early Poems,' printed in roughly 6,500 copies, which reprints A Lume Spento together with A Quinzaine for This Yule plus previously unpublished early poems — and which includes facsimiles of the original 1908 title and dedication pages plus a bibliographic note, which is precisely what misleads a scanner or a hopeful owner. It runs 128 pages with an index, bound in blue cloth spine with patterne

I have a first edition of A Lume Spento — 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.