Is My Poems, by J.D. With Elegies on the Authors Death a First Edition?

The points of issue

• First edition: "Poems, By J.D. With Elegies on the Authors Death," London, printed by M[iles] F[lesher] for John Marriot, 1633 (STC 7045
• ESTC S121684
• Keynes 78)
• The single decisive point is format: the 1633 is a small quarto and carries no portrait, whereas every later seventeenth-century edition (1635, 1639, 1649, 1650, 1654, 1669) is an octavo and, from 1635 onward, carries William Marshall's engraved portrait of Donne at eighteen
• Supporting tells inside the book: the Satyres show blank spaces at pp
• 330, 331 and 341 where lines offensive to king and church were suppressed; the preliminary epistle "The Printer to the Understanders" (leaves A3-A4) is variably placed, most often after A2, and is absent from many copies; pagination errors occur at pp

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. Verify this is the UK true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
5. 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.
6. 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 1633 is the true and only first edition of the collected Poems; there is no UK/US or original-language precedence question, since Donne was English and the book is posthumous (he died in 1631). The census claim is confirmed. Two precedence traps are worth publishing. First, the Anniversaries were the only poems separately published in Donne's lifetime — "An Anatomy of the World" (London, printed for Samuel Macham, 1611; STC 7022) is his first published poem and an institutional rarity; the Roxburghe Club issued a facsimile of it in 1951 with a postscript by Keynes, and that facsimile is regularly mistaken for the original. Second, the 1635 second edition is the first to group the poems into the familiar generic sections (Songs and Sonnets first, Divine Poems last) and adds "Farewell to Love," "A Lecture upon the Shadow" and "A Dialogue between Sir Henry Wotton and Mr Donne" — a "first thus" only. The 1669 seventh edition is the first to print Donne's name in full on the title page and to note him as late Dean of St Paul's.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club edition of the 1633 quarto exists or could exist. What actually reaches donation bins are modern reprints and print-on-demand facsimiles struck from EEBO / Early English Books microfilm scans (Gale ECCO, BiblioBazaar, Kessinger and similar imprints — e.g. ISBN 978-1-171-25171-2), alongside scholarly and trade editions: Grierson's Oxford edition (1912), Nonesuch, Everyman and Penguin. Any "Poems by John Donne" carrying an ISBN, a barcode, perfect binding or modern typography is a reprint, not the 1633.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Poems, by J.D. With Elegies on the Authors Death a first edition?

A first edition of Poems, by J.D. With Elegies on the Authors Death by John Donne (John Marriot, London) is identified by: First edition: "Poems, By J.D.

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 1633 is the true and only first edition of the collected Poems; there is no UK/US or original-language precedence question, since Donne was English and the book is posthumous (he died in 1631).

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

No book-club edition of the 1633 quarto exists or could exist. What actually reaches donation bins are modern reprints and print-on-demand facsimiles struck from EEBO / Early English Books microfilm scans (Gale ECCO, BiblioBazaar, Kessinger and similar imprints — e.g. ISBN 978-1-171-25171-2), alongside scholarly and trade editions: Grierson's Oxford edition (1912), Nonesuch, Everyman and Penguin. Any "Poems by John Donne" carrying an ISBN, a barcode, perfect binding or modern typography is a rep

I have a first edition of Poems, by J.D. With Elegies on the Authors Death — 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.