Is My Copy of Briggflatts a First Edition?

The points of issue

• True first book edition: Briggflatts: An Autobiography, London: Goliard Press for Fulcrum Press, 1966
• Quarto/folio, approx. 320 x 250 mm, unpaginated; title and full-page titles printed in red and black, with illustrations and decorative borders after Barry Hall and Nick Strausfeld, printed by Tom Raworth and Barry Hall at Goliard Press
• Guedalla A6
• The edition was 500 copies in three simultaneous issues: 374 in printed card wrappers
• 100 bound in cloth with the spine lettered in gilt, in a green dust jacket printed in red and black (Guedalla A6b); and 26 copies lettered A–Z, specially bound in red pebbled leather-grain covers and signed by Bunting
• The limitation statement is the tell — a same-year second impression is offered by dealers as a 'second edition' and lacks it

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?

UK book first (Fulcrum, 1966), but with American periodical precedence: the poem's first appearance in print was in Poetry (Chicago), January 1966, months before the Fulcrum book appeared later that year; it had been read publicly at Morden Tower, Newcastle, on 22 December 1965. No separate American first edition of Briggflatts as a book is recorded — American readers met the poem in Poetry and then in the collected editions. So the Fulcrum 1966 volume is the only book first, in its three issues.P-041842

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club edition. Reprint tells: a second impression appeared in the same year, 1966, in wrappers and without the 500-copy limitation — dealers list it as 'second edition (same year as first)'; the 2009 Bloodaxe edition (issued with an audio recording Bunting made in 1967 and a DVD of Peter Bell's 1982 film) and the 2016 Faber critical edition are 'first thus'. Appearances in Fulcrum's Collected Poems (1968) and later collected editions are collections, not firsts.P-041843

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Briggflatts a first edition?

A first edition of Briggflatts by Basil Bunting (Fulcrum Press, London) is identified by: True first book edition: Briggflatts: An Autobiography, London: Goliard Press for Fulcrum Press, 1966.

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. UK book first (Fulcrum, 1966), but with American periodical precedence: the poem's first appearance in print was in Poetry (Chicago), January 1966, months before the Fulcrum book appeared later that year; it had been read publicly at Morden Tower, Newcastle, on 22 December 1965.

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

No book-club edition. Reprint tells: a second impression appeared in the same year, 1966, in wrappers and without the 500-copy limitation — dealers list it as 'second edition (same year as first)'; the 2009 Bloodaxe edition (issued with an audio recording Bunting made in 1967 and a DVD of Peter Bell's 1982 film) and the 2016 Faber critical edition are 'first thus'. Appearances in Fulcrum's Collected Poems (1968) and later collected editions are collections, not firsts.

I have a first edition of Briggflatts — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and decode the printing with the free First Edition Checker. Clearing out books? I take them as a free donation and make sure collectible copies are identified, not discarded: free pickup in the Albuquerque metro (scheduled by route), the 24/7 drop box at 5445 Edith Blvd NE, or donor-paid mail-in from anywhere in the US. Questions? Call or text 505-250-3804.

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.