Is My Personae a First Edition?

The points of issue

• Elkin Mathews, London, 1909
• 12mo, 59 pages
• Gallup A3a
• Binding is publisher's grey/drab paper-covered boards (some dealers describe the shade as grey-green), stamped in gilt; issued without a dust jacket, as was normal for Mathews at this date, so no jacket should be expected or looked for
• The issue point is the height of the gilt spine title: the first issue has spine stamping measuring 2 cm, the second issue measures 1.5 cm
• 1,000 sets of sheets were printed, of which roughly half were never issued as Personae and were later bound up for the 1913 combined Personae & Exultations volume — so genuine 1909 sheets can legitimately sit inside a 1913 book, and the binding, not the sheets, carries the identification

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. 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?

UK true first, confirmed, with one refinement the census got slightly wrong: Personae is Pound's first regularly (commercially) published book, not his first book — it is preceded by the privately printed A Lume Spento (Venice, 1908) and A Quinzaine for This Yule (1908). There is no US edition of this 1909 title, so American and British collectors alike take the Elkin Mathews London printing as the first; there is no transatlantic precedence contest here.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

The confusion the census flags is real and is the principal trap. Personae: The Collected Poems of Ezra Pound (Boni & Liveright, New York, 1926 — including Ripostes, Lustra, Homage to Sextus Propertius and Hugh Selwyn Mauberley) is an entirely different and much later book: 231 pages, black cloth stamped in gilt, first published December 1926 with a second printing in February 1927. It is routinely listed simply as 'Personae' and offered as a first edition, which it is — of a different work. Distinguish on imprint (Boni & Liveright, New York vs Elkin Mathews, London), date, extent (231 pp. vs 59 pp.) and binding (black cloth vs grey gilt-stamped paper boards). The secondary trap is the 1913 Elkin Mathews Personae & Exultations issue built from leftover 1909 sheets. No book-club issue is documented for the 1909 book.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Personae a first edition?

A first edition of Personae by Ezra Pound (Elkin Mathews, London) is identified by: Elkin Mathews, London, 1909; 12mo, 59 pages; Gallup A3a.

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. UK true first, confirmed, with one refinement the census got slightly wrong: Personae is Pound's first regularly (commercially) published book, not his first book — it is preceded by the privately printed A Lume Spento (Venice, 1908) and A Quinzaine for This Yule (1908).

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

The confusion the census flags is real and is the principal trap. Personae: The Collected Poems of Ezra Pound (Boni & Liveright, New York, 1926 — including Ripostes, Lustra, Homage to Sextus Propertius and Hugh Selwyn Mauberley) is an entirely different and much later book: 231 pages, black cloth stamped in gilt, first published December 1926 with a second printing in February 1927. It is routinely listed simply as 'Personae' and offered as a first edition, which it is — of a different work. Dis

I have a first edition of Personae — 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.