Is My An Essay on the Principle of Population a First Edition?

The points of issue

• London: Printed for J. Johnson, in St
• Paul's Church-Yard, 1798
• Octavo (approx
• 215 x 132 mm), collating ix, 396 pp
• The controlling point is negative and simple: the first edition is anonymous — no author's name anywhere on the title page — under the title 'An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it affects the future Improvement of Society, with Remarks on the Speculations of Mr
• Godwin, M. Condorcet, and other Writers.' There is no number line, no edition statement, no printed price and no dust jacket for the period; the expected dress is contemporary calf or original boards

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. Confirm the first-edition statement — look for “First Edition,” “First Printing,” or the publisher’s equivalent wording.
3. Read the number line — the lowest number is the printing. A line including 1 is a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2). Paste it into the decoder.
4. Verify this is the UK true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
5. 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.
6. 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?

No UK/US or original-language question: Malthus wrote in English and the 1798 Johnson octavo is the true first. The census claim on publisher, city, year and anonymity is confirmed. The edition that trips buyers is the 1803 quarto (London: printed by T. Bensley for J. Johnson), which is the second edition and the first to bear Malthus's name on the title page; it runs roughly four times the length of the 1798 and is routinely described as practically a new book rather than a revision, Malthus himself conceding in the preface that he had taken too gloomy a view in the first. Any title page dated 1798 bearing 'T.R. Malthus' as author is therefore not the first edition. Because the 1803 is a distinct work in substance, collections that want the argument in both its polemical and its mature form treat the 1798 octavo and the 1803 quarto as two books, not two states of one. The census's characterisation of the 1803 as the 'attainable form' is a market judgement, not a bibliographical point, and has been dropped.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club issue exists for a 1798 imprint. The documented reprint tells are the Royal Economic Society facsimile (London: Macmillan, 1926), which reprints the 1798 text with notes by James Bonar and reproduces the original title page — the Bonar notes and the 1926 imprint give it away — and modern reprint-house editions, such as The Lawbook Exchange's 2007 hardcover reprint of the first edition, which carries an ISBN. Any copy with an ISBN, machine-made paper, a photographically reproduced title page, or modern publisher's casing is a reprint.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of An Essay on the Principle of Population a first edition?

A first edition of An Essay on the Principle of Population by Thomas Robert Malthus (J. Johnson, London) is identified by: London: Printed for J.

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

Check the copyright page. A number line whose lowest number is 1 marks a first printing (Random House ends at 2). No UK/US or original-language question: Malthus wrote in English and the 1798 Johnson octavo is the true first.

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

No book-club issue exists for a 1798 imprint. The documented reprint tells are the Royal Economic Society facsimile (London: Macmillan, 1926), which reprints the 1798 text with notes by James Bonar and reproduces the original title page — the Bonar notes and the 1926 imprint give it away — and modern reprint-house editions, such as The Lawbook Exchange's 2007 hardcover reprint of the first edition, which carries an ISBN. Any copy with an ISBN, machine-made paper, a photographically reproduced ti

I have a first edition of An Essay on the Principle of Population — 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.