Is My Copy of Faust. Eine Tragödie (Part One) a First Edition?

The points of issue

• Precedence within 1808 needs care
• The first printing of the completed Part One is the one inside Goethe's Werke, Achter Band (Tübingen: Cotta, 1808): the scholarly Historisch-kritische Faustedition assigns that printing the siglum A and states that the separately published editions derive from the printings within the collected editions, D.1
• going back to A. German antiquarian listings match this, cataloguing the volume expressly as 'Erstdruck in: Goethe's Werke, Achter Band' — 8vo (approx. 18.4 x 11.5 cm), 376 pp., followed by the poem 'Lili's Park' at pp. 377-380 carrying the footnote that it was intended for the first volume (cited as Hagen 16, A8)
• The separate 'Faust
• Eine Tragödie' of the same year (Tübingen: Cotta, 1808; approx. 309 pp.) is Hagen 310 and is correctly called the first separate edition (erste Einzelausgabe) — not the first printing, though it is very often catalogued as the first edition
• A single dealer description additionally cites a re-imposed setting of gathering A with press corrections chiefly orthographic and punctuational; that point is single-sourced and should be treated as unconfirmed

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. 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?

A German original; the precedence question is internal to Cotta's 1808 output rather than UK-versus-US. 'Faust. Ein Fragment' (Leipzig: bey Georg Joachim Göschen, 1790) precedes it and is separately collected as the first published version of Faust: small 8vo (157 x 95 mm), [2], 168 pp., half-title signed A, with the first issue identified by the three repeated lines at the foot of p. 144 and the head of p. 145 together with the printing errors — and it too was issued both within Goethe's Schriften and as a separate issue, the separately issued sheets taking a letterpress title in place of the engraved frontispiece and vignette title. In English, Abraham Hayward's prose version (London: Edward Moxon, February 1833) is generally described as the first English translation to render Part One in full rather than bridging passages with prose summary; earlier verse attempts (the anonymous 'Faustus' of 1821 and Lord Francis Leveson Gower's of 1823) are partial or abridged, so 'first complete English translation' is a defensible but contested description and should be stated with that qualification.P-041420

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club issues exist for this title. The live trap here is the inverse of the usual one: the separate 1808 volume looks like the first edition and is routinely offered as such, when the first printing sits inside Werke, Achter Band of the same year and the same Cotta Tübingen imprint. Later Cotta collections — including the Ausgabe letzter Hand (1827-1830) — reprint Part One within multi-volume sets and are frequently mistaken for a Faust I first; check whether the Faust text stands alone or is embedded in a numbered collected-works volume, and collate the pagination (376 pp. plus 'Lili's Park' at 377-380 for the Werke volume, approx. 309 pp. for the separate).P-041421

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Faust. Eine Tragödie (Part One) a first edition?

A first edition of Faust. Eine Tragödie (Part One) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (J.G. Cotta'sche Buchhandlung, Tübingen) is identified by: Precedence within 1808 needs care.

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. A German original; the precedence question is internal to Cotta's 1808 output rather than UK-versus-US.

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

No book-club issues exist for this title. The live trap here is the inverse of the usual one: the separate 1808 volume looks like the first edition and is routinely offered as such, when the first printing sits inside Werke, Achter Band of the same year and the same Cotta Tübingen imprint.

I have a first edition of Faust. Eine Tragödie (Part One) — 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.