2 Jonathan Swift first editions are documented on this shelf, from A Tale of a Tub (1704) to Gulliver's Travels (Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World) (1726) across 2 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Jonathan Swift title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.

Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Jonathan Swift copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.

A Tale of a Tub — 1704 · Printed for John Nutt, LondonOctavo (c. 186 x 116 mm), collation [xii], 322 pp. References: Teerink-Scouten 217; Rothschild 1992. Published anonymously on 10 May 1704; John Nutt was a trade publisher who lent his imprint to obscure Swift's authorship, the actual printer being Benjamin Tooke Jr. Critical caution: the second and third editions also appeared in 1704 and also under the Nutt imprint, so the 1704 date and the Nutt imprint alone do…. The London 1704 Nutt edition is the true first and the census claim is confirmed, including that the first appeared anonymously and with The Battle of the Books. There is no UK/US or original-language precedence question. The census is also right that the 1710 fifth edition is collected, but it is a first-thus: it adds Swift's 'An Apology For the &c.' and the notes and carries substantial changes, and must not be…. No book-club issues apply at this date. The reprint tells that matter are the second and third editions of 1704 sharing the first's date and Nutt imprint, the corrected fourth of 1705, and the fifth of 1710. A separate confusion to guard against is Edmund Curll's A Complete Key to the Tale of a Tub, one of several imitations and unofficial continuations that flooded the market between 1705 and 1710; it is a….
Gulliver's Travels (Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World) — 1726 · Benjamin Motte, LondonLondon: printed for Benj. Motte, 1726; four parts bound in two volumes, octavo, with an engraved portrait frontispiece of Gulliver (by Sheppard after Sturt) and six engraved plates — five maps and one plate of the writing machine. CENSUS CORRECTION: the batch note claims "Teerink AA first state." That is wrong. Three issues appeared in 1726 — Teerink 289 "A" (published 28 October 1726, sold out within about a…. Two editions are collected and both should be named. (1) The Motte London 1726 first (Teerink A) is the first edition and first appearance in print — the census is right about publisher, city and year, wrong about which issue is first (A, not AA). (2) The Faulkner Dublin 1735 Works, Volume III, is the FIRST EDITION OF SWIFT'S OWN CORRECTED TEXT and is separately and seriously collected — Motte had cut and…. No book-club edition exists for a 1726 imprint. Documented reprint tells: (1) any Dublin 1726/1727 or Motte 1727 "second/third edition" title-page statement rules out the first issue; (2) the overwhelming majority of donated Gullivers are 19th- and 20th-century illustrated children's abridgments (Rackham, Robinson, Dulac and successors) — these are "first thus" at best; (3) Limited Editions Club / Heritage Press….

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