Is My The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Mémoires de la vie privée de Benjamin Franklin) a First Edition?

The points of issue

• Paris: Chez Buisson, 1791
• Octavo, two parts in one volume, in French, translated by Jacques Gibelin (the attribution is Quérard's) from one of the manuscript fair copies Franklin had sent to friends in France
• The first-printing tell is a paging fault present in every recorded copy: the four final text pages, 204-207, are misnumbered 360-363 — Bauman's cataloguing calls the mispagination of the four final text pages 'as always,' and James Cummins gives the numbers
• The full title continues '...Écrits par lui-même, et adressés à son fils; suivis d'un précis historique de sa vie politique, et de plusieurs pièces, relatives à ce père de la liberté'; only the first portion is Franklin's own memoir, carrying the narrative to 1731 and comprising the first two parts he drafted at Twyford in 1771
• Expected dress is contemporary French mottled or half calf, spine gilt
• No number line, edition statement, printed price or dust jacket applies to the period

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. 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.
3. Verify this is the American true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
4. 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.
5. 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 true first is the French Buisson edition of 1791, and the census is correct: there is no earlier English printing, and this is one of the classic cases of an American author's masterwork appearing first in translation. The first English-language appearance is 'The Private Life of the Late Benjamin Franklin, LL.D.... Originally written by himself, and now translated from the French' (London: printed for J. Parsons, 1793) — not Franklin's English, but a retranslation of Gibelin's French back into English, credited to Alexander Stevens; the first American edition (1794) descends from the same retranslated text. A collection that wants both the original-language first and the first in English takes the 1791 Buisson and the 1793 Parsons. A third landmark is separate again: John Bigelow's edition (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1868), set from Franklin's own holograph manuscript, is the first appearance of the authentic English text, the first English publication of all four parts, and the first printing of the 'outline.' William Temple Franklin's 1818 edition and every English printing before 1868 carry the corrupted retranslated text.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club issue applies to the 1791 Buisson printing. The recurring hazards are 'first thus' traps rather than club editions: the 1793 Parsons London and 1794 American editions are sometimes offered as the 'first edition of the Autobiography' when they are retranslations; the Bigelow 1868 is correctly the first complete and authentic English text but is not the first edition of the work; and the 1818 Temple Franklin is neither. Modern facsimiles and print-on-demand copies of the 1791 show machine-made paper, photographic type and a modern imprint.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Mémoires de la vie privée de Benjamin Franklin) a first edition?

A first edition of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Mémoires de la vie privée de Benjamin Franklin) by Benjamin Franklin (Buisson, Paris) is identified by: Paris: Chez Buisson, 1791.

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). The true first is the French Buisson edition of 1791, and the census is correct: there is no earlier English printing, and this is one of the classic cases of an American author's masterwork appearing first in translation.

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

No book-club issue applies to the 1791 Buisson printing. The recurring hazards are 'first thus' traps rather than club editions: the 1793 Parsons London and 1794 American editions are sometimes offered as the 'first edition of the Autobiography' when they are retranslations; the Bigelow 1868 is correctly the first complete and authentic English text but is not the first edition of the work; and the 1818 Temple Franklin is neither. Modern facsimiles and print-on-demand copies of the 1791 show mac

I have a first edition of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Mémoires de la vie privée de Benjamin Franklin) — 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.