Is My Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio) a First Edition?

The points of issue

• William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies
• Published according to the True Originall Copies
• London: printed by Isaac Iaggard and Ed
• Blount, 1623; entered in the Stationers' Register 8 November 1623
• The colophon reads 'Printed at the Charges of W. Iaggard, Ed
• Blount, I. Smithweeke, and W. Aspley, 1623.' Folio

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?

London 1623 only — there is no rival, foreign or original-language first, and the census note is correct that precedence is not in question. What is in question for any copy presented as a First Folio is whether it is a First Folio at all. The later folios are separate editions, not printings: Second Folio, 1632; Third Folio, 1663, with a second issue of 1664 adding seven plays — Pericles (the only one now accepted as Shakespeare's), The London Prodigal, Thomas Lord Cromwell, Sir John Oldcastle, The Puritan, A Yorkshire Tragedy and Locrine; Fourth Folio, 1685 (R. Bentley, E. Brewster, R. Chiswell and H. Herringman). The Third Folio is the scarcest of the four, unsold stock having reportedly burned in the Great Fire of 1666. Genuine First Folios are census-tracked individually copy by copy; a previously unrecorded copy is a significant scholarly event, not a routine find.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

CORRECTION to the census note: there is no Methuen 1902 facsimile. The 1902 facsimile is Sidney Lee's collotype reproduction of the Chatsworth copy in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire, published Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1902; Senate House Library's facsimile bibliography records no Methuen facsimile at all. The documented facsimile sequence a donor realistically holds: Francis Douce (London, 1807); Lionel Booth's type reprint (London, 1864); Howard Staunton's photolithographic facsimile (London, 1866); J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps's reduced facsimile (London, 1876, reprinted 1906 — the census note's date is correct); Lee (Clarendon Press, 1902); the Norton Facsimile edited by Charlton Hinman (1968 — the census note's date is correct), which reproduces no single copy but is a composite assembled from about thirty Folger copies, selecting the cleanest and most corrected state of each page; and the Hinman/Blayney Norton second edition (New York, 1996). Also expect disbound single leaves, Second/Third/Fourth Folio fragments, and 20th-century reduced photographic reprints. Any 1623-dated folio should be referred to an ABAA/ILAB specialist or the Folger Shakespeare Library before being described as a First Folio.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio) a first edition?

A first edition of Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio) by William Shakespeare (Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount, London) is identified by: William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies.

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. London 1623 only — there is no rival, foreign or original-language first, and the census note is correct that precedence is not in question.

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

CORRECTION to the census note: there is no Methuen 1902 facsimile. The 1902 facsimile is Sidney Lee's collotype reproduction of the Chatsworth copy in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire, published Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1902; Senate House Library's facsimile bibliography records no Methuen facsimile at all. The documented facsimile sequence a donor realistically holds: Francis Douce (London, 1807); Lionel Booth's type reprint (London, 1864); Howard Staunton's photolithographic facsimile

I have a first edition of Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio) — 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.