Is My Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (the Kilmarnock Burns) a First Edition?

The points of issue

• True first: the Kilmarnock edition, imprint transcribing as "KILMARNOCK: PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON, M,DCC,LXXXVI.", published 31 July 1786; octavo, 240 pp., with the Preface, contents, and the glossary of Scots terms, and carrying the "Entered in Stationers-hall" notice
• ESTC T91548
• 612 copies were printed and roughly 84 are recorded as surviving, more than half of them in North America — this is one of the great rarities of English-language literature and copies are census-tracked rather than casually traded
• The single fastest disqualifier is a portrait frontispiece: the Kilmarnock has none, whereas the 1787 Edinburgh and later editions carry the John Beugo engraving after Alexander Nasmyth
• Content confirms the same: "Tam o' Shanter" (written 1790) and "Holy Willie's Prayer" are absent, and made-up copies supplying leaves in facsimile are recorded, so leaf-by-leaf collation against Egerer 1 is essential

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?

Kilmarnock 1786 is the true first and there is no rival — English/Scots is the original language and no earlier edition exists. The realistic collectible is the first Edinburgh edition (Edinburgh: printed for the Author, and sold by William Creech, 17 April 1787; Egerer 2; ESTC T125274; c. 3,000 copies; Beugo portrait frontispiece; subscribers' list; 22 poems new to the book), and it is genuinely collected in its own right as the first appearance of those poems. The census note's implication about the famous haggis variant is CORRECTED here: the first state is "skinking" (correctly set) at p. 263, and "stinking" is the LATER reading, introduced when William Smellie, short of type, reset and reprinted a large part of the sheets in a partial second impression. Two independent trade sources state the skinking setting precedes the stinking one, and Egerer himself was "inclined to believe" the skinking edition was printed first on comparison with the Kilmarnock text — Egerer's own hedge should be respected rather than overstated. A second corroborating first-state point in the Edinburgh edition is the misprint "Duke of Boxburgh" (for Roxburgh) in the subscribers' list. About 1,000 of the roughly 3,000 copies carry the stinking reading, and roughly 10% of copies mix sheets from both settings, so a copy can legitimately be part-first-state.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club editions exist for an 18th-century work. The documented reprint and later-issue tells are the unauthorised Belfast, Dublin and London editions that followed the 1787 Edinburgh printing, and the second Edinburgh edition of 1793. Made-up Kilmarnock copies with facsimile leaves are a recorded hazard — one described copy contained 84 original leaves and 36 supplied in facsimile — so any Kilmarnock must be leaf-collated. For the Edinburgh edition, presence of the Beugo portrait alone proves nothing about state; only the p. 263 skinking/stinking reading and the subscribers'-list misprint do.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (the Kilmarnock Burns) a first edition?

A first edition of Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (the Kilmarnock Burns) by Robert Burns (John Wilson, Kilmarnock) is identified by: True first: the Kilmarnock edition, imprint transcribing as "KILMARNOCK: PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON, M,DCC,LXXXVI.", published 31 July 1786; octavo, 240 pp., with the Preface, contents, and the glossary of Scots terms, and carrying the "Entered in Stationers-hall" notice.

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. Kilmarnock 1786 is the true first and there is no rival — English/Scots is the original language and no earlier edition exists.

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

No book-club editions exist for an 18th-century work. The documented reprint and later-issue tells are the unauthorised Belfast, Dublin and London editions that followed the 1787 Edinburgh printing, and the second Edinburgh edition of 1793. Made-up Kilmarnock copies with facsimile leaves are a recorded hazard — one described copy contained 84 original leaves and 36 supplied in facsimile — so any Kilmarnock must be leaf-collated. For the Edinburgh edition, presence of the Beugo portrait alone pro

I have a first edition of Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (the Kilmarnock Burns) — 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.