Is My Lyrical Ballads a First Edition?

The points of issue

• First edition, 1798, published anonymously — neither Wordsworth's nor Coleridge's name appears
• The sheets were printed at Bristol by Biggs and Cottle over the summer of 1798 for Joseph Cottle, who had bought the copyright from Wordsworth, and the earliest title-page imprint reads "Bristol: Printed by Biggs and Cottle, for T. N. Longman, Paternoster-Row, London
• Foolscap octavo, 210 pp., printed on good wove paper
• The cardinal internal point is the Lewti cancel: after printing was finished, Coleridge's "Lewti" was removed — it had already appeared over his name in a newspaper and would have broken the volume's anonymity — and replaced by "The Nightingale", the contents leaf and signatures D8 and E1-2 being cancelled so that three leaves of "Lewti" gave way to four of "The Nightingale"
• This substitution produces the diagnostic pagination break: two pages are numbered 69, and printer's mark E is absent from p
• 65 where it should fall

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?

English is the original language and 1798 is the true first year; the precedence question here is between two title-page issues of one edition, not between countries. First issue: the Bristol/Longman imprint above. Cottle had prepared the title with T. N. Longman's imprint but he and Longman reached no agreement, and within about a fortnight Cottle sold the whole edition of 500 copies — less the few already distributed — to J. and A. Arch of London, who cancelled the title leaf and substituted their own: "London: Printed for J. & A. Arch, Gracechurch-Street. 1798". The book was published in London on 4 October 1798. The Bristol-imprint first issue is the pinnacle and is effectively unobtainable: Sotheby's records that copies of the first issue are notoriously rare and that none are thought to remain in private hands, which makes the Arch (second) issue the earliest form realistically collected — and it is genuinely collected, not a consolation. Both should be named. Precedence of the two imprints has been argued over by Thomas J. Wise, D. F. Foxon, Robert W. Daniel, and James A. Butler and Karen Green, and Foxon in particular speculated about the abnormal "Printed by Biggs and Cottle for T. N. Longman" imprint; the Bristol-first ordering given here is the standard trade and auction position, but a cataloguer should cite the scholarship rather than assert it flatly.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club editions exist for a work of this period. The reprint and "first thus" traps are substantial: the second edition (London: T. N. Longman and O. Rees, 1800) is in two volumes, names Wordsworth alone on the title, and adds the celebrated Preface — it is a major book in its own right and the first appearance of the Preface, but it is not the 1798 first, and its later two-volume printings of 1802 and 1805 are commonly miscatalogued as firsts. Copies made up from mixed sheets are recorded, and a first-edition set can legitimately be second issue in one volume and first issue in another. Later 19th- and 20th-century editions and the many modern scholarly and facsimile reprints (including student editions of the 1798 and 1802 texts) reproduce the text only.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Lyrical Ballads a first edition?

A first edition of Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Biggs and Cottle for T. N. Longman, Bristol) is identified by: First edition, 1798, published anonymously — neither Wordsworth's nor Coleridge's name appears.

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. English is the original language and 1798 is the true first year; the precedence question here is between two title-page issues of one edition, not between countries.

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

No book-club editions exist for a work of this period. The reprint and "first thus" traps are substantial: the second edition (London: T. N. Longman and O. Rees, 1800) is in two volumes, names Wordsworth alone on the title, and adds the celebrated Preface — it is a major book in its own right and the first appearance of the Preface, but it is not the 1798 first, and its later two-volume printings of 1802 and 1805 are commonly miscatalogued as firsts. Copies made up from mixed sheets are recorded

I have a first edition of Lyrical Ballads — 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.