Is My Don Juan (Cantos I and II) a First Edition?

The points of issue

• First edition, published 15 July 1819 with neither Byron's nor Murray's name printed anywhere in the volume, a deliberate anonymity driven by the poem's scandalous content
• Issued in a handsomely printed, more expensive issue alongside a smaller, cheaper issue of the same setting; contents comprise only Cantos I and II, with some 1,500 copies produced of the initial printing
• Byron's dedicatory verses attacking Poet Laureate Robert Southey by name were withheld from this and every other edition published in Byron's lifetime at Murray's insistence, and reached print only in an 1832-33 posthumous collected edition

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. 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.
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?

Because Murray's name did not appear in the book, he had little legal recourse against the unauthorized reprints that quickly followed. Murray himself later published Cantos III-V (1821) but then refused the increasingly controversial later cantos, which Byron placed instead with the publisher John Hunt, who issued Cantos VI-VIII, IX-XI, and XII-XIV in 1823 and Cantos XV-XVI in 1824. A first edition of the complete poem is therefore a set spanning two different publishers' imprints across several years, not a single uniform Murray edition.P-035105

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

Nineteenth-century and later collected editions combining all sixteen cantos of Don Juan under one later title page and a uniform binding are convenient reading texts but are not first editions of any individual canto installment, and none of these prints the Southey dedication as it would have appeared in 1819.P-035106

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Don Juan (Cantos I and II) a first edition?

A first edition of Don Juan (Cantos I and II) by Lord Byron (Thomas Davison, printer, for John Murray; neither author's nor publisher's name printed in the book) is identified by: First edition, published 15 July 1819 with neither Byron's nor Murray's name printed anywhere in the volume, a deliberate anonymity driven by the poem's scandalous content.

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. Because Murray's name did not appear in the book, he had little legal recourse against the unauthorized reprints that quickly followed.

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

Nineteenth-century and later collected editions combining all sixteen cantos of Don Juan under one later title page and a uniform binding are convenient reading texts but are not first editions of any individual canto installment, and none of these prints the Southey dedication as it would have appeared in 1819.

I have a first edition of Don Juan (Cantos I and II) — 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.