Is My 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

How Fulcrum Press, London marked a first edition

• 1984–c.1995: First printings identified by copyright-page data — a single copyright year, a matching title-page date, and no later-printing statement; some titles state 'First Edition'.
• c.1995–present: Number line standard on the copyright page ('10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1'); the lowest digit present indicates the printing. Many titles also print an explicit 'First Edition' line above the number line.

Full Fulcrum Press, 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 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.

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.

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 — 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.