# Is "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater" by Thomas De Quincey a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey (Taylor and Hessey, London, 1822) is identified by: First edition in book form: 'Printed for Taylor and Hessey,' London, 1822, printed by J. Census confirmed.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition in book form: 'Printed for Taylor and Hessey,' London, 1822, printed by J. Moyes of Greville Street
- 12mo, approx
- 185 x 112 mm, collating vi, 206 pp. including the half-title — the half-title should be present
- Published anonymously: De Quincey's name appears nowhere in the book, and it was decades before he allowed it onto a title page
- Issued in original grey-brown paper-covered boards with a printed spine label; rare thus, and the great majority of surviving copies were rebound in contemporary calf or later morocco
- A terminal leaf of advertisements is found in some copies and not others, apparently varying by intended retailer or destination; its presence or absence is a recorded variation rather than a settled priority point, and dealers describe copies without it as 'likely as issued.' Do not treat the ad leaf as decisive either way
- Publisher imprint reads Taylor and Hessey, London

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Thomas De Quincey |
| Publisher | Taylor and Hessey, London |
| Year | 1822 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition in book form: 'Printed for Taylor and Hessey,' London, 1822, printed by J. Moyes of Greville Street |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First edition in book form: 'Printed for Taylor and Hessey,' London, 1822, printed by J. Moyes of Greville Street. 12mo, approx. 185 x 112 mm, collating vi, 206 pp. including the half-title — the half-title should be present. Published anonymously: De Quincey's name appears nowhere in the book, and it was decades before he allowed it onto a title page. Issued in original grey-brown paper-covered boards with a printed spine label; rare thus, and the great majority of surviving copies were rebound in contemporary calf or later morocco. A terminal leaf of advertisements is found in some copies and not others, apparently varying by intended retailer or destination; its presence or absence is a recorded variation rather than a settled priority point, and dealers describe copies without it as 'likely as issued.' Do not treat the ad leaf as decisive either way.

## Is this the true first?
Census confirmed. The Confessions first appeared anonymously in serial form in The London Magazine, September and October 1821; the anonymous Taylor and Hessey book of 1822 is the first edition in book form and is the collected first. There is no UK-versus-US precedence contest for the first edition — it is a London book, and American printings follow. The 1856 revision is a genuine 'first thus' trap and a distinct text: preparing the first collected edition of his works for Edinburgh publisher James Hogg, De Quincey undertook a large-scale revision that more than doubled the length of the Confessions, and that revised text first appeared in Volume V of 'Selections Grave and Gay, from Writings Published and Unpublished, of Thomas De Quincey' (Edinburgh: James Hogg; London: R. Groombridge & Sons, 1856). Most critics hold the 1822 original artistically superior to the digressive 1856 expansion. A copy of the 1856 revised text is the first edition of that text only, never of the work.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented for an 1822 title. The tells to watch are the many later reprintings of what is a short, endlessly reissued book: the American collected 'De Quincey's Writings' (Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields, from 1850) carries an expanded text, the 1856 Hogg 'Selections Grave and Gay' Volume V carries the revised text, and 19th- and 20th-century trade, Everyman and Modern Library issues reprint one or the other. Any copy naming De Quincey on the title page is by definition not the 1822 anonymous first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Confessions of an English Opium-Eater* by Thomas De Quincey a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/confessions-of-an-english-opium-eater
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.