Is My Gulliver's Travels (Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World) a First Edition?

The points of issue

• London: printed for Benj
• Motte, 1726; four parts bound in two volumes, octavo, with an engraved portrait frontispiece of Gulliver (by Sheppard after Sturt) and six engraved plates — five maps and one plate of the writing machine
• CENSUS CORRECTION: the batch note claims "Teerink AA first state." That is wrong
• Three issues appeared in 1726 — Teerink 289 "A" (published 28 October 1726, sold out within about a week), Teerink 290 "AA" (mid-November), and Teerink "B" (December)
• Teerink A is the first issue
• The points for A (all readings UNCORRECTED / earliest): Part I, p

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. 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. 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.
4. 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?

Two editions are collected and both should be named. (1) The Motte London 1726 first (Teerink A) is the first edition and first appearance in print — the census is right about publisher, city and year, wrong about which issue is first (A, not AA). (2) The Faulkner Dublin 1735 Works, Volume III, is the FIRST EDITION OF SWIFT'S OWN CORRECTED TEXT and is separately and seriously collected — Motte had cut and softened passages he judged politically dangerous, and Faulkner, working from an annotated copy supplied by "a friend of the author" (generally identified as Charles Ford), restored over 500 corrections and more than 50 passages absent from or expanded beyond Motte. The 1735 volume prints the "Letter from Capt. Gulliver to his Cousin Sympson" complaining of Motte's alterations ("I do hardly know mine own work"). Many textual scholars treat the 1735 Faulkner as the editio princeps of the text; bibliographically the 1726 Motte remains the first edition of the book. Collect Motte for priority, Faulkner for the text — never let a 1735 Faulkner be sold or catalogued as "the first edition" without that distinction, and never let a Motte be called textually authoritative.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club edition exists for a 1726 imprint. Documented reprint tells: (1) any Dublin 1726/1727 or Motte 1727 "second/third edition" title-page statement rules out the first issue; (2) the overwhelming majority of donated Gullivers are 19th- and 20th-century illustrated children's abridgments (Rackham, Robinson, Dulac and successors) — these are "first thus" at best; (3) Limited Editions Club / Heritage Press and Folio Society issues carry a modern colophon or slipcase and are printed on modern paper; (4) Everyman's Library and school-text editions are cloth-bound with 19th/20th-century imprints on the title-page verso. A genuine Motte 1726 has no copyright page at all — identification runs through the title-page imprint, the portrait state, and the four text points above.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Gulliver's Travels (Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World) a first edition?

A first edition of Gulliver's Travels (Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World) by Jonathan Swift (Benjamin Motte, London) is identified by: London: printed for Benj.

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. Two editions are collected and both should be named.

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

No book-club edition exists for a 1726 imprint. Documented reprint tells: (1) any Dublin 1726/1727 or Motte 1727 "second/third edition" title-page statement rules out the first issue; (2) the overwhelming majority of donated Gullivers are 19th- and 20th-century illustrated children's abridgments (Rackham, Robinson, Dulac and successors) — these are "first thus" at best; (3) Limited Editions Club / Heritage Press and Folio Society issues carry a modern colophon or slipcase and are printed on mode

I have a first edition of Gulliver's Travels (Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World) — 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.