Is My Poems (Hogarth Press) a First Edition?

The points of issue

• First edition, Gallup A5 (Woolmer's Hogarth checklist also records it)
• Hand-set and hand-printed by Leonard and Virginia Woolf at Hogarth House, Richmond, and published May 1919 in an edition of about 250 copies covering both issues; it sold out and was out of print by the middle of 1920
• A pamphlet of roughly thirteen pages gathering seven poems, among them 'Sweeney Among the Nightingales', 'Whispers of Immortality' and 'Mr
• Eliot's Sunday Morning Service'
• There is no limitation statement and no number line, so identification rests on the imprint — 'Printed and published by L. & V. Woolf at The Hogarth Press, Hogarth House, Richmond
• 1919' — together with the wrappers and the front-cover label

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. Read the number line — the lowest number is the printing. A line including 1 is a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2). Paste it into the decoder.
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?

UK-only; no US edition of this collection exists, and no original-language question arises. The census claim is confirmed: the Hogarth Poems precedes both Ara Vos Prec (The Ovid Press, London, February 1920) and any American collection. Two clarifications the census omits. First, this is not Eliot's first book — Prufrock and Other Observations (The Egoist, London, 1917) is. Second, the seven poems were afterwards absorbed into Ara Vos Prec and into the differently arranged US collection Poems (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1920), whose sequence Pound arranged while Eliot set the order of Ara Vos Prec. Those two are firsts of their own contents, not editions of the Hogarth pamphlet — a first-thus trap in both directions.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club issue exists and the pamphlet was never reprinted by the Press, so the trap is a title mix-up rather than a club copy. The far commoner Knopf Poems (New York, 1920) and Faber's later Poems collections are routinely catalogued simply as 'Eliot, Poems'; check the imprint for the Woolfs' names, Hogarth House and Richmond. Any copy in publisher's cloth, any copy in a dust jacket, and any machine-printed copy is not the 1919 pamphlet.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Poems (Hogarth Press) a first edition?

A first edition of Poems (Hogarth Press) by T. S. Eliot (The Hogarth Press, Richmond) is identified by: First edition, Gallup A5 (Woolmer's Hogarth checklist also records it).

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A number line whose lowest number is 1 marks a first printing (Random House ends at 2). UK-only; no US edition of this collection exists, and no original-language question arises.

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

No book-club issue exists and the pamphlet was never reprinted by the Press, so the trap is a title mix-up rather than a club copy. The far commoner Knopf Poems (New York, 1920) and Faber's later Poems collections are routinely catalogued simply as 'Eliot, Poems'; check the imprint for the Woolfs' names, Hogarth House and Richmond. Any copy in publisher's cloth, any copy in a dust jacket, and any machine-printed copy is not the 1919 pamphlet.

I have a first edition of Poems (Hogarth Press) — 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.