# Is "Personae" by Ezra Pound a First Edition?

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

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- 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
- Publisher imprint reads Elkin Mathews, London

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Ezra Pound |
| Publisher | Elkin Mathews, London |
| Year | 1909 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | Elkin Mathews, London, 1909 |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## 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.

## 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.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Personae* by Ezra Pound a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/personae
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.