# Is "The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner" by James Hogg a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg (Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, London, 1824) is identified by: First edition published anonymously as The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner: Written by Himself (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1824). London first, published 12 July 1824 and issued in Edinburgh three days later — a single anonymous edition with no period rival; no US edition of consequence.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition published anonymously as The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner: Written by Himself (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1824)
- Octavo, [4], 390 pp., with an engraved facsimile of the sinner's manuscript (matching the text at p
- 366) as frontispiece; complete copies call for the half-title, often lacking
- Roughly 1,000 copies were printed, of which fewer than 300 sold
- Publisher imprint reads Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, London
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | James Hogg |
| Publisher | Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, London |
| Year | 1824 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition published anonymously as The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner: Written by Himself (London: Longman… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First edition published anonymously as The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner: Written by Himself (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1824). Octavo, [4], 390 pp., with an engraved facsimile of the sinner's manuscript (matching the text at p. 366) as frontispiece; complete copies call for the half-title, often lacking. Roughly 1,000 copies were printed, of which fewer than 300 sold.

## Is this the true first?
London first, published 12 July 1824 and issued in Edinburgh three days later — a single anonymous edition with no period rival; no US edition of consequence.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Trap: unsold first-edition sheets were reissued in 1828 with a cancel title as The Suicide's Grave; or, Memoirs and Confessions of a Sinner. A severely bowdlerized text appeared in 1837 (Tales and Sketches by the Ettrick Shepherd); the unexpurgated text was not reprinted until 1895 — later editions also omit the facsimile frontispiece.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner* by James Hogg a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-private-memoirs-and-confessions-of-a-justified-sinner
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.