# Is "The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano" by Olaudah Equiano a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano (Printed for and sold by the author, London, 1789) is identified by: Two volumes, self-published. The London 1789 two-volume self-published edition is the true first; there is no earlier or competing original-language printing, and the census claim is confirmed.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The title-page imprint reads: "London: Printed for and sold by the AUTHOR, No
- 10, Union-Street, Middlesex Hospital: Sold also by Mr
- Johnson, St
- Paul's Church-Yard
- Murray, Fleet-Street
- Robson and Clark, Bond-Street
- Publisher imprint reads Printed for and sold by the author, London

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Olaudah Equiano |
| Publisher | Printed for and sold by the author, London |
| Year | 1789 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The title-page imprint reads: "London: Printed for and sold by the AUTHOR, No |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Two volumes, self-published. The title-page imprint reads: "London: Printed for and sold by the AUTHOR, No. 10, Union-Street, Middlesex Hospital: Sold also by Mr. Johnson, St. Paul's Church-Yard; Mr. Murray, Fleet-Street; Messrs. Robson and Clark, Bond-Street; Mr. Davis, opposite Gray's Inn, Holborn..." and carries no edition statement. That absence is the decisive point: every subsequent self-published edition is numbered on its title page, and the second edition — also London, 1789, also by Equiano — is lettered "SECOND EDITION" there. Volume I carries the engraved frontispiece portrait of Equiano by Daniel Orme after W. Denton, with the plate line "Published March 1, 1789 by G. Vassa"; the plate was struck roughly three weeks before the book itself appeared. Volume I also contains the multi-page list of subscribers (headed by the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York) and the dedication to the Lords and Commons dated 24 March 1789. The subscriber list is not by itself an edition point — later editions carry progressively longer lists — so the unnumbered title page is what must be checked.

## Is this the true first?
The London 1789 two-volume self-published edition is the true first; there is no earlier or competing original-language printing, and the census claim is confirmed. Equiano retained control of the book and issued a rapid sequence of numbered editions through 1794, among them a Dublin fourth (1791), an Edinburgh fifth (1792) and a Norwich eighth (1794). The first American edition is New York: printed and sold by W. Durell, 1791 (Evans 23353), two volumes with plates engraved by Cornelius Tiebout — reprinted without Equiano's authorisation. The New York 1791 is separately collected as the first American, but it is a reprint of the London text, not a state of the first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Not applicable — the book predates book-club publishing. The reprint tell across the eighteenth-century sequence is the numbered edition statement on the title page ("SECOND EDITION" onward), which the 1789 first alone lacks. Nineteenth-century and modern reprints and scholarly editions are set from the 1789 or 1794 text and are identified by their own imprints and dates.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano* by Olaudah Equiano a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-interesting-narrative-of-the-life-of-olaudah-equiano
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.