Is My Queen Mab; A Philosophical Poem: With Notes a First Edition?

The points of issue

• Privately printed in an edition of only 250 copies for distribution among friends and never offered for public sale
• Shelley's own name and address appear on the title page as printer because Thomas Hookham, the bookseller who arranged the printing, would not have his name attached to so radical a work
• Fearing prosecution for the poem's attacks on monarchy, organized religion, and marriage, Shelley "mutilated" many of the copies he personally bound and gave out, cutting away the title leaf and the final leaf that would have identified him, and in some copies the dedication leaf to his wife Harriet as well
• Complete copies retaining these preliminary leaves are markedly less common than mutilated copies and are considered the rarer state today

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?

An unauthorized and textually altered piracy of Queen Mab was issued by the bookseller William Clark in 1821, which Shelley tried unsuccessfully to suppress through the courts. That 1821 piracy has no standing as an edition sanctioned by Shelley and must not be confused with the true 1813 privately printed first edition.P-035096

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

Once Shelley's later fame made Queen Mab commercially desirable to publishers, numerous authorized and unauthorized nineteenth-century reprints followed; any copy naming a trade publisher on the title page, or dated after 1813, is one of these later printings rather than the original private edition.P-035097

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Queen Mab; A Philosophical Poem: With Notes a first edition?

A first edition of Queen Mab; A Philosophical Poem: With Notes by Percy Bysshe Shelley (Printed by P. B. Shelley; no trade publisher named on the title page) is identified by: Privately printed in an edition of only 250 copies for distribution among friends and never offered for public sale.

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. An unauthorized and textually altered piracy of Queen Mab was issued by the bookseller William Clark in 1821, which Shelley tried unsuccessfully to suppress through the courts.

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

Once Shelley's later fame made Queen Mab commercially desirable to publishers, numerous authorized and unauthorized nineteenth-century reprints followed; any copy naming a trade publisher on the title page, or dated after 1813, is one of these later printings rather than the original private edition.

I have a first edition of Queen Mab; A Philosophical Poem: With Notes — 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.