# Is "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral" by Phillis Wheatley a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral by Phillis Wheatley (A. Bell, London, 1773) is identified by: Imprint: "London: Printed for A. London is the true first and the census claim is confirmed: Archibald Bell published the book in London on 1 September 1773 after Boston printers declined it, and Cox and Berry handled the Boston sale as agents — the Boston line in the imprint does not make it an American book.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Imprint: "London: Printed for A. Bell, Bookseller, Aldgate; and sold by Messrs
- Cox and Berry, King-Street, Boston
- MDCCLXXIII." Signatures [A]4 B-Q4; pagination v, [1] ("Letter sent by the Author's Master to the Publisher"), [1] ("To the Publick", the attestation), [1] blank, [9]-124, [3] Contents, [1] publisher's advertisements — the final leaf Q4 carries the end of the contents plus the ads and is frequently lacking
- Stoddard & Whitesell record TWO 1773 editions (236 and 237), so a 1773 A. Bell title page does not by itself establish the first: Edition 1 (Stoddard 236) is identified by turned chain lines in gatherings A and O-Q and a 3mm space between the lines of the imprint
- The engraved frontispiece portrait after Scipio Moorhead exists in two states (state A without crosshatching), and portrait state does not track edition — Christie's has catalogued a Stoddard-Edition-1 copy with the portrait in state A, while Bonhams catalogued another Edition-1 copy with the portrait in Stoddard's state B. The "To the Publick" attestation is signed in type by leading Boston men including Thomas Hutchinson and John Hancock
- Wheatley signed some copies in ink on the verso of the title leaf, noting that "the Genuine Copy may be known, for it is sign'd in my own handwriting." ESTC T153734
- Publisher imprint reads A. Bell, London

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Phillis Wheatley |
| Publisher | A. Bell, London |
| Year | 1773 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Imprint: "London: Printed for A. Bell, Bookseller, Aldgate; and sold by Messrs |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Octavo. Imprint: "London: Printed for A. Bell, Bookseller, Aldgate; and sold by Messrs. Cox and Berry, King-Street, Boston. MDCCLXXIII." Signatures [A]4 B-Q4; pagination v, [1] ("Letter sent by the Author's Master to the Publisher"), [1] ("To the Publick", the attestation), [1] blank, [9]-124, [3] Contents, [1] publisher's advertisements — the final leaf Q4 carries the end of the contents plus the ads and is frequently lacking. Stoddard & Whitesell record TWO 1773 editions (236 and 237), so a 1773 A. Bell title page does not by itself establish the first: Edition 1 (Stoddard 236) is identified by turned chain lines in gatherings A and O-Q and a 3mm space between the lines of the imprint. The engraved frontispiece portrait after Scipio Moorhead exists in two states (state A without crosshatching), and portrait state does not track edition — Christie's has catalogued a Stoddard-Edition-1 copy with the portrait in state A, while Bonhams catalogued another Edition-1 copy with the portrait in Stoddard's state B. The "To the Publick" attestation is signed in type by leading Boston men including Thomas Hutchinson and John Hancock. Wheatley signed some copies in ink on the verso of the title leaf, noting that "the Genuine Copy may be known, for it is sign'd in my own handwriting." ESTC T153734; Stoddard & Whitesell 236; Sabin 10316; Wegelin 432.

## Is this the true first?
London is the true first and the census claim is confirmed: Archibald Bell published the book in London on 1 September 1773 after Boston printers declined it, and Cox and Berry handled the Boston sale as agents — the Boston line in the imprint does not make it an American book. There was no American edition in Wheatley's lifetime. The first American edition is Philadelphia: Joseph Crukshank, 1786, issued two years after her death; it is plainer than the London book, lacks the frontispiece portrait, and was printed in smaller numbers. The 1786 Philadelphia is separately collected as the first American, but London 1773 has precedence.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Not applicable — the book predates book-club publishing. The live trap is bibliographic rather than club-related: Stoddard & Whitesell record a second 1773 edition (Stoddard 237) plus many variants, so the chain-line and imprint-spacing points must be checked before a 1773 Bell copy is called the first. At least eight further editions appeared in the thirty years after 1786, each with its own imprint.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral* by Phillis Wheatley a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/poems-on-various-subjects-religious-and-moral
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.