Is My The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders a First Edition?

The points of issue

• First edition, published anonymously — Defoe is nowhere named — on 27 January 1722
• Moore 446
• ESTC T70314
• THE decisive point, and the one the census misses, is the title-page date: the first edition's imprint is a garbled Roman numeral, "MDDCXXI", which is not a valid numeral at all and reads as 1721, although the book was actually published in January 1722
• A title page dated plainly MDCCXXII
• is therefore NOT the first edition

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 UK 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?

London 1722 is the true first; no UK/US or original-language precedence question arises, as Defoe is an English author printed in London and American editions are much later. The census's publisher attribution "W. Chetwood and T. Edling" is correct but abbreviated: the imprint names both booksellers with their shop signs and streets, and it is the full imprint together with the garbled date that identifies the book. The census's claim that "the true first has the two-line imprint" is REFUTED — no such point is documented in any source consulted; the documented point is the MDDCXXI date error. The census is otherwise right that three 1722 editions exist and that this is a classic edition-identification trap.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

Book-club editions are not applicable to a 1722 octavo. The real later-issue tells are the second and third editions of 1722, which state their edition on the title page and are correctly dated MDCCXXII; both are commonly mistaken for, or optimistically described as, the first. Moll Flanders has been continuously reprinted since: any copy in publisher's cloth, with an ISBN, or with an editor's introduction (Oxford World's Classics, Penguin, Broadview, Norton) is a modern reprint.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders a first edition?

A first edition of The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe (published anonymously) (Printed for, and sold by W. Chetwood, at Cato's-Head in Russel-Street, Covent-Garden; and T. Edling, at the Prince's-Arms over-against Exeter-Change in the Strand, London) is identified by: First edition, published anonymously — Defoe is nowhere named — on 27 January 1722.

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. London 1722 is the true first; no UK/US or original-language precedence question arises, as Defoe is an English author printed in London and American editions are much later.

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

Book-club editions are not applicable to a 1722 octavo. The real later-issue tells are the second and third editions of 1722, which state their edition on the title page and are correctly dated MDCCXXII; both are commonly mistaken for, or optimistically described as, the first. Moll Flanders has been continuously reprinted since: any copy in publisher's cloth, with an ISBN, or with an editor's introduction (Oxford World's Classics, Penguin, Broadview, Norton) is a modern reprint.

I have a first edition of The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders — 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.