Is My Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (Fanny Hill) a First Edition?

The points of issue

• The imprint reads 'London: printed [by Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton in the Strand, 1749' and is false in the name only: 'G. Fenton' is an inversion of Fenton Griffiths, brother of the bookseller and publisher Ralph Griffiths, who was the real publisher and who later blamed his brother for the book
• Volume I was issued 21 November 1748 and volume II in February 1749, but catalogue records give the title-page imprint as 1749 on both — so the '1748-1749' span in the census describes the installment publication dates, not anything printed on the books
• The decisive textual point of the true first is that it contains an important two-paragraph description of a male homosexual encounter that was deleted from all subsequent editions (Peter Sabor); its absence rules out the first
• Cleland wrote the book in the Fleet Prison
• Griffiths claimed to have sold about sixty copies between November 1748 and November 1749, when he and Cleland were arrested and charged with corrupting the King's subjects
• No edition statement, no number line, no jacket

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. Read the number line — the lowest number is the printing. A line including 1 is a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2). Paste it into the decoder.
3. Verify this is the UK true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
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?

The London 'G. Fenton' printing is the true first and the census claim is confirmed, with the correction to the date noted above. There is no competing UK/US or original-language claimant. The first-thus trap is the expurgated recasting issued under the title Memoirs of Fanny Hill, which drops the offending material and circulated widely in place of the full text; it is a different and shorter work and is not the first edition. The 1963 G.P. Putnam's Sons edition is the first unexpurgated American edition and is collected in its own right as the trigger for Memoirs v. Massachusetts (1966), in which the Supreme Court lifted the Massachusetts ban — but it is emphatically not a first edition of the book.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

This is the title where the reprint question matters most: the census is right that unexpurgated eighteenth-century printings are vanishingly rare and that virtually everything in circulation is a modern reprint. Any copy with an ISBN, a dust jacket, perfect binding, or a twentieth-century publisher's imprint is modern regardless of what the title-page date claims. Eighteenth-century piracies also exist and are genuinely old but are not the first — copies dated 1781, for example, are recorded and offered as early editions rather than firsts. Because the book was clandestine from the outset, treat any 'G. Fenton 1749' title-page with suspicion until the text at the homosexual-encounter passage and the physical make-up have both been examined.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (Fanny Hill) a first edition?

A first edition of Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (Fanny Hill) by John Cleland ('G. Fenton' in the Strand, London — a false imprint for Fenton and Ralph Griffiths; printed by Thomas Parker) is identified by: The imprint reads 'London: printed [by Thomas Parker] for G.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A number line whose lowest number is 1 marks a first printing (Random House ends at 2). The London 'G.

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

This is the title where the reprint question matters most: the census is right that unexpurgated eighteenth-century printings are vanishingly rare and that virtually everything in circulation is a modern reprint. Any copy with an ISBN, a dust jacket, perfect binding, or a twentieth-century publisher's imprint is modern regardless of what the title-page date claims. Eighteenth-century piracies also exist and are genuinely old but are not the first — copies dated 1781, for example, are recorded an

I have a first edition of Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (Fanny Hill) — 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.