Is My The Great Hunger a First Edition?

The points of issue

• True first in book form: The Cuala Press, Dublin, 1942, limited to 250 numbered copies — the numbered limitation/colophon leaf is the primary tell and no copy without it is the first
• Set in Caslon and hand-printed by Esther Ryan and Máire Gill; pp
• 33, [3]; publisher's quarter linen over blue paper boards with the title printed on the front board
• Printed under wartime paper shortages: light fading and rubbing to the boards is normal for the issue and does not indicate a later state, as Cuala made no second printing

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. Verify this is the UK 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?

Irish-only original — there is no UK or US first edition. Precedence trap: the poem's first appearance in print was in the London journal Horizon, January 1942, which carried parts I–III and an excerpt of part IV under the title 'The Old Peasant' (placed there on John Betjeman's recommendation). The Cuala Press issued the complete fourteen-part poem in April 1942; that is the first book edition and the first appearance of the full text. A periodical run of a partial text under a different title does not displace the Cuala book as the collected first.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club edition. The traps are later appearances of the text, none of them firsts: the poem was collected in A Soul for Sale (Macmillan, London, 1947), a 'first thus' trade appearance; and Irish University Press, Shannon, issued a 1971 facsimile of the Cuala Press edition — a facsimile reproduces the 1942 setting and can deceive at a glance, so confirm the numbered Cuala limitation leaf and the original quarter-linen and blue-board binding.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of The Great Hunger a first edition?

A first edition of The Great Hunger by Patrick Kavanagh (The Cuala Press, Dublin) is identified by: True first in book form: The Cuala Press, Dublin, 1942, limited to 250 numbered copies — the numbered limitation/colophon leaf is the primary tell and no copy without it is the first.

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. Irish-only original — there is no UK or US first edition.

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

No book-club edition. The traps are later appearances of the text, none of them firsts: the poem was collected in A Soul for Sale (Macmillan, London, 1947), a 'first thus' trade appearance; and Irish University Press, Shannon, issued a 1971 facsimile of the Cuala Press edition — a facsimile reproduces the 1942 setting and can deceive at a glance, so confirm the numbered Cuala limitation leaf and the original quarter-linen and blue-board binding.

I have a first edition of The Great Hunger — 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.