Is My The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night a First Edition?

The points of issue

• Ten volumes, 'Benares: Printed by the Kamashastra Society for Private Subscribers Only
• MDCCCLXXXV'
• , followed by six Supplemental Nights volumes, 1886-1888 — sixteen large octavo volumes in all
• Limited to 1,000 numbered sets for private subscribers, issued with Burton's guarantee that no larger printing would ever be made in this form
• Original publisher's black cloth: the first ten volumes blocked in gilt, the six supplemental volumes in silver; black glazed (coated) endpapers, top edges stained red, title pages printed in red and black
• The decisive separation from the reprints is the copyright line on the versos of the title pages — variously 'Copyright... by Ellis Spear' or by Philip Justice — together with the stencilled set number recorded on the verso of the front pastedown of volume I; reprints carry neither

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?

The census overstates Burton's primacy in two directions and both need naming. Antoine Galland's 'Les mille et une nuits, contes arabes traduits en françois', Paris: la Veuve Claude Barbin and successors, 12 volumes 1704-1717, is the first European translation and the edition that created the Western canon — Aladdin and Ali Baba included, the so-called orphan tales that appear in no Arabic manuscript source and enter world literature here. In English, the first complete and unexpurgated translation is not Burton's but John Payne's 'The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night', London: Villon Society, 9 volumes 1882-1884, privately printed and limited to 500 numbered copies; Burton drew heavily on Payne — by his own account with permission — and Payne afterwards made his irritation plain. Burton's 1885-88 Kama Shastra set is correctly identified as the collected annotated English translation collectors pursue, and the Terminal Essay is his alone, but it is the second complete English rendering, not the first. Collections that take this text seriously hold Payne and Burton together, with Galland alongside for the French.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

There is no book club edition in the ordinary sense; the reprint problem here is worse than one, and it catches experienced buyers. Isabel Burton issued an expurgated 'Household Edition' after her husband's death, and from about 1903 the 'Burton Club' — the pseudonym of a Boston publisher — acquired the electroplates and issued a long series of undated reprints running well into the 1920s, printed from the original setting and reproducing the 'Benares' imprint verbatim. Penzer identified nine 'catch-word' Burton Club issues distinguished only by fictitious imprints — Benares, Mecca, Medinah, Aden, Baghdad, Samara, Bassorah, Shammar, Luristan — appearing roughly every two years after 1905, and no definitive list or sequence of them exists. Burton Club sets are undated, lack the stencilled subscriber's number and the Ellis Spear / Philip Justice copyright line, and are routinely catalogued and sold as '1885 Benares first editions'. Burton Society and later 'Manuscript Edition' sets (e.g. 99 sets with an autograph Burton leaf, ca. 1903, in red morocco) describe themselves openly in the limitation as transcriptions of 'the original edition dated Benares 1885' — read the limitation leaf before the title page.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night a first edition?

A first edition of The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night by Richard F. Burton (translator) (Kama Shastra Society, 'Benares' [i.e. London]) is identified by: Ten volumes, 'Benares: Printed by the Kamashastra Society for Private Subscribers Only.

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 census overstates Burton's primacy in two directions and both need naming.

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

There is no book club edition in the ordinary sense; the reprint problem here is worse than one, and it catches experienced buyers. Isabel Burton issued an expurgated 'Household Edition' after her husband's death, and from about 1903 the 'Burton Club' — the pseudonym of a Boston publisher — acquired the electroplates and issued a long series of undated reprints running well into the 1920s, printed from the original setting and reproducing the 'Benares' imprint verbatim. Penzer identified nine 'c

I have a first edition of The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — 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.