Is My Cathay a First Edition?

The points of issue

• First edition: Elkin Mathews, London, published 6 April 1915 in an edition of 1,000 copies — Gallup A9, the standard citation, confirmed by independent ABAA/UK dealer catalogues
• A slim 32-page pamphlet, the sheets string-sewn into publisher's printed wrappers lettered in black; dealers describe the wrapper stock variously as drab, buff or brown, so the shade alone should not be treated as a state point
• There is no edition statement or number line to check: the Elkin Mathews imprint with the 1915 date on a 32-page wrappered pamphlet is the first and only printing of the book as a separate publication
• The full title is a point in itself — "Cathay
• Translations by Ezra Pound, for the most part from the Chinese of Rihaku, from the notes of the late Ernest Fenollosa, and the decipherings of the professors Mori and Ariga." Contents of the first: fourteen poems translated from the Chinese plus Pound's version of the Anglo-Saxon "The Seafarer." Condition, not state, is the collecting issue — the pamphlet is fragile and foxing and spine browning are near-universal

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?

UK-only true first; there is no separate American edition of Cathay, and the census claim is confirmed on that point but needs one correction of sequence. The Cathay poems were first reprinted not in the American Lustra but in the London Lustra (Elkin Mathews, 1916), where they appear without "The Seafarer" and with four additional Chinese poems; the New York Lustra of Ezra Pound (Alfred A. Knopf, 1917) followed. So the American collector's route to the Cathay poems is the Knopf Lustra (1917), but the London Lustra (1916) precedes it, and neither is an edition of Cathay — the only edition of Cathay proper is Elkin Mathews, London, 1915.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club issue. The reprint tells are the collected appearances rather than separate editions: the poems folded into Lustra (London 1916; New York, Knopf, 1917), then into Personae and the New Directions collected volumes. Modern separate reissues are clearly identifiable — the New Directions Cathay: The Centennial Edition (2015) and the Fordham Cathay: A Critical Edition (2019, ed. Billings, Bush, Saussy) are scholarly reprints carrying modern ISBNs and are the commonest items misdescribed as Cathay firsts. Any hardbound copy is not the original issue: the 1915 book was issued only in wrappers.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Cathay a first edition?

A first edition of Cathay by Ezra Pound (Elkin Mathews, London) is identified by: First edition: Elkin Mathews, London, published 6 April 1915 in an edition of 1,000 copies — Gallup A9, the standard citation, confirmed by independent ABAA/UK dealer catalogues.

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). UK-only true first; there is no separate American edition of Cathay, and the census claim is confirmed on that point but needs one correction of sequence.

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

No book-club issue. The reprint tells are the collected appearances rather than separate editions: the poems folded into Lustra (London 1916; New York, Knopf, 1917), then into Personae and the New Directions collected volumes. Modern separate reissues are clearly identifiable — the New Directions Cathay: The Centennial Edition (2015) and the Fordham Cathay: A Critical Edition (2019, ed. Billings, Bush, Saussy) are scholarly reprints carrying modern ISBNs and are the commonest items misdescribed

I have a first edition of Cathay — 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.