Is My Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam a First Edition?

The points of issue

• First edition, published anonymously (FitzGerald's name appears nowhere; his authorship was not public until 1875), containing seventy-five quatrains preceded by his prose introduction
• FitzGerald privately commissioned about 250 wrappered copies from the Covent Garden printer G. Norman (Maiden Lane) and arranged for Bernard Quaritch's name and Castle Street, Leicester Square address to appear on the title page as publisher
• Sales failed at the printed price; the remainder was reduced to a penny and cleared from a box outside Quaritch's shop, where Whitley Stokes, and then Rossetti and Swinburne, discovered it
• Issued as a slim pamphlet in original printed paper wrappers; dealers cite the misprint 'Lightning' on page 4 as a hallmark of the genuine 1859 setting of type
• Copies surviving in the original wrappers represent the book as first issued

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. 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.
4. Verify this is the American 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?

The Quaritch 1859 pamphlet is the true first — the editio princeps of FitzGerald's Rubaiyat. It is anonymous, contains exactly seventy-five quatrains, is dated 1859 with the Quaritch/Castle Street imprint and the 'G. Norman' printer's line, and carries the 'Lightning' misprint on page 4. Everything else is later: the revised second (1868, 110 quatrains), third (1872, 101 quatrains) and fourth (1879, 101 quatrains, reworded) Quaritch editions were reset and are textually distinct; the first American edition (James R. Osgood, Boston, 1878) was set from the third London edition, not the 1859; and the many type-facsimiles (for example the 1927 Noel Douglas 'Replicas' facsimile) reproduce the 1859 setting on modern paper. Identify the genuine first by the 1859 title page, the seventy-five quatrains and the anonymity; separate it from facsimiles by the period paper and printed wrappers and the absence of any later publisher's or facsimile imprint.P-037518

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

FitzGerald substantially rewrote the poem for the second (1868, 110 quatrains), third (1872, 101 quatrains) and fourth (1879, 101 quatrains but further reworded) editions, each textually distinct from the 1859 text; any edition naming FitzGerald as translator on the title page, or with a quatrain count other than seventy-five, is a later and textually different edition, not the anonymous 1859 pamphlet. Innumerable illustrated gift-book printings appeared from the 1880s onward and are later still. Facsimiles reproduce the 1859 text but are not the 1859 printing.P-037519

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam a first edition?

A first edition of Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by translated by Edward FitzGerald (Bernard Quaritch) is identified by: First edition, published anonymously (FitzGerald's name appears nowhere; his authorship was not public until 1875), containing seventy-five quatrains preceded by his prose introduction.

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. The Quaritch 1859 pamphlet is the true first — the editio princeps of FitzGerald's Rubaiyat.

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

FitzGerald substantially rewrote the poem for the second (1868, 110 quatrains), third (1872, 101 quatrains) and fourth (1879, 101 quatrains but further reworded) editions, each textually distinct from the 1859 text; any edition naming FitzGerald as translator on the title page, or with a quatrain count other than seventy-five, is a later and textually different edition, not the anonymous 1859 pamphlet. Innumerable illustrated gift-book printings appeared from the 1880s onward and are later still

I have a first edition of Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam — 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.