# Is "Prometheus Unbound: A Lyrical Drama in Four Acts, With Other Poems" by Percy Bysshe Shelley a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Prometheus Unbound: A Lyrical Drama in Four Acts, With Other Poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley (C. and J. Ollier, London, 1820) is identified by: First edition, octavo (approx. Publisher, city and year in the census are correct: C.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, octavo (approx
- 211 x 137 mm), pp
- 222, published summer 1820 (August; the Shelleys, resident in Italy, did not receive a copy until November)
- The issue point is the CONTENTS leaf, signature A3: in the FIRST issue that leaf is integral and carries 'Miscellaneous' MISSPELLED; in the second issue the word is spelled correctly and leaf A3 is a CANCEL - the physical cancel is the test, and Peter Harrington notes the second issue is the state 'as usual', the first issue being decidedly the scarcer
- Complete copies have the half-title and a terminal advertisement leaf, both frequently absent, especially in rebound copies
- CAUTION - the census claim that the first has 'the errata leaf' is NOT supported by any source consulted and appears to be an error: Shelley found the volume riddled with printer's errors on receipt and sent Ollier a corrective list only on 20 January 1821, after publication; that 'formidable list' is recorded as lost, and no errata leaf is called for in the catalog descriptions checked
- Publisher imprint reads C. and J. Ollier, London

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Percy Bysshe Shelley |
| Publisher | C. and J. Ollier, London |
| Year | 1820 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, octavo (approx |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First edition, octavo (approx. 211 x 137 mm), pp. 222, published summer 1820 (August; the Shelleys, resident in Italy, did not receive a copy until November). The issue point is the CONTENTS leaf, signature A3: in the FIRST issue that leaf is integral and carries 'Miscellaneous' MISSPELLED; in the second issue the word is spelled correctly and leaf A3 is a CANCEL - the physical cancel is the test, and Peter Harrington notes the second issue is the state 'as usual', the first issue being decidedly the scarcer. Complete copies have the half-title and a terminal advertisement leaf, both frequently absent, especially in rebound copies. CAUTION - the census claim that the first has 'the errata leaf' is NOT supported by any source consulted and appears to be an error: Shelley found the volume riddled with printer's errors on receipt and sent Ollier a corrective list only on 20 January 1821, after publication; that 'formidable list' is recorded as lost, and no errata leaf is called for in the catalog descriptions checked. The exact form of the misspelling on A3 is likewise NOT confirmed - secondary summaries variously give 'Miscellanous' and 'Miscellaneoous' and no primary catalog consulted prints the misspelled form, so it should not be quoted. Original boards are the desirable state; most surviving copies are in later morocco (Zaehnsdorf bindings are common). No dust jacket was issued at this date.

## Is this the true first?
Publisher, city and year in the census are correct: C. and J. Ollier, London, 1820. Two corrections. First, the title is incomplete as given - the volume is 'Prometheus Unbound: A Lyrical Drama in Four Acts, With Other Poems', and the 'Other Poems' matter is the point of the book for many collectors, containing 'Ode to the West Wind', 'To a Skylark' and 'The Cloud' in their first appearances. Second, the census's precedence note conflates two things: the errata-leaf claim is unsupported (see points), while the 'Miscellaneous' issue point is real but works the opposite way round from how the note reads - it is the FIRST issue that carries the misspelling on an integral A3, corrected in the second issue by a cancel leaf. There is no competing UK, American or foreign-language edition with a precedence claim; the 1820 Ollier volume is the sole first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue at this date. The dominant trap is the second issue sold as simply 'first edition' - technically correct (both issues are the 1820 first edition) but the corrected, cancelled-A3 state is the common one, and catalogs that say only 'first edition' without addressing A3 should be read as unplaced. Check whether A3 is integral or a cancel by collation, not by the reading alone. Also watch for copies bound without the half-title and terminal advertisement leaf, and for later collected editions of Shelley's poetical works (Mary Shelley's 1839 edition and after) offered as first appearances of the poem.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Prometheus Unbound: A Lyrical Drama in Four Acts, With Other Poems* by Percy Bysshe Shelley a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/prometheus-unbound-a-lyrical-drama-in-four-acts-with-other-p
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.