Is My The Rape of the Lock a First Edition?

The points of issue

• The collected form is the five-canto separate: "The Rape of the Lock
• An Heroi-Comical Poem
• In Five Canto's
• Written by Mr
• Pope," London, printed for Bernard Lintott, 1714 (Foxon P941); octavo, [8], 48 pp., the title printed in red and black, with an engraved frontispiece and five plates — one before each canto — by Claude Du Bosc after Louis Du Guernier, plus engraved headpieces, a tailpiece and an initial letter by Simon Gribelin
• This is simultaneously the first separate, first complete (five-canto) and first illustrated edition; it was published on 4 March 1714, reportedly sold 3,000 copies in four days, and was reprinted within the same year, so any edition statement on the title page and the strength of the plate impressions both require checking

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?

The census note is confirmed, with one refinement worth publishing: the poem's true first appearance in print is the anonymous two-canto version, and there it is titled "The Rape of the Locke" — with the final "e" — printed at pp. [353]-376 of Bernard Lintot's "Miscellaneous Poems and Translations. By Several Hands" (London, May 1712; Griffith 6; ESTC T5777; octavo). Pope sold that two-canto text to Lintott in March 1712 and was later paid to expand it; the 1714 Lintott separate is the form universally called "the first edition of The Rape of the Lock," but it is the first of the enlarged text, not the poem's first printing. Two traps follow: leaves extracted or disbound from the 1712 Miscellany are offered as a "first edition" of the poem although no separate 1712 printing exists, and the spelling "Locke" versus "Lock" is itself the quickest way to tell the 1712 miscellany text from the 1714 book. There is no UK/US or original-language precedence question — Pope wrote in English and both printings are London, Lintott.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club edition of the 1714 exists. Circulating copies are modern reprints and illustrated re-issues; the most frequently misidentified is Aubrey Beardsley's illustrated edition (London: Leonard Smithers, 1896 — frontispiece and nine drawings, seven of them plates, with 37 copies on Japanese vellum of which 25 were for sale) and its very numerous later reprints, alongside Penguin, Oxford, Dover and print-on-demand facsimiles struck from ECCO scans. A copy with Beardsley's rococo line drawings is never the 1714; the 1714 plates are engravings by Du Bosc after Du Guernier.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of The Rape of the Lock a first edition?

A first edition of The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope (Bernard Lintott, London) is identified by: The collected form is the five-canto separate: "The Rape of the Lock.

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 note is confirmed, with one refinement worth publishing: the poem's true first appearance in print is the anonymous two-canto version, and there it is titled "The Rape of the Locke" — with the final "e" — printed at pp.

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

No book-club edition of the 1714 exists. Circulating copies are modern reprints and illustrated re-issues; the most frequently misidentified is Aubrey Beardsley's illustrated edition (London: Leonard Smithers, 1896 — frontispiece and nine drawings, seven of them plates, with 37 copies on Japanese vellum of which 25 were for sale) and its very numerous later reprints, alongside Penguin, Oxford, Dover and print-on-demand facsimiles struck from ECCO scans. A copy with Beardsley's rococo line drawin

I have a first edition of The Rape of the Lock — 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.