Is My The Winding Stair a First Edition?

The points of issue

• Wade 164; also cited as Connolly, The Modern Movement, 56b
• A signed limited edition of 642 copies, the limitation leaf carrying the statement, with Yeats's signature at the front on the half-title
• Sources conflict on the signing: several ABAA dealers describe all 642 copies as signed, while others record 642 printed of which 600 were signed on the half-title — treat the figure as unsettled and rely on the limitation leaf and the signature in the copy at hand rather than on a remembered number
• Slim octavo, 26 pages plus a blank leaf
• Original blue cloth, gilt-stamped, with red morocco spine label, gilt decoration to the boards, purple endpapers, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed
• One dealer source records the book as designed by Frederic Warde and printed at William Edwin Rudge's press; that attribution is single-sourced here

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. Read the number line — the lowest number is the printing. A line including 1 is a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2). Paste it into the decoder.
3. Verify this is the US 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?

A US-before-UK trap and a contents trap at once. The Fountain Press (New York) 1929 signed limited is the true first appearance of The Winding Stair — the collection reached print in America, not in Ireland or England. Macmillan's London trade edition of 1933 is a different and substantially larger book, 'The Winding Stair and Other Poems' (Wade 169), in green cloth decorated in blind on the upper board and lettered in gilt on the spine, issued in a dust jacket. Macmillan's New York 1933 printing is the first American trade edition and follows London. Both the 1929 Fountain Press and the 1933 Macmillan London are collected — the former for priority of the title, the latter as the first appearance of the enlarged collection. The discriminator is the title itself: a volume titled with 'and Other Poems' is never the 1929 first.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club edition of the 1929 Fountain Press limited; signed limiteds are not club-issued. The reprint risk sits with the 1933 Macmillan, where the New York issue and later impressions follow the London first printing. For the 1929, the risk is not a club copy but a made-up one — confirm the limitation leaf, the half-title signature, and the Fountain Press imprint together.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of The Winding Stair a first edition?

A first edition of The Winding Stair by W. B. Yeats (The Fountain Press, New York) is identified by: Wade 164; also cited as Connolly, The Modern Movement, 56b.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A number line whose lowest number is 1 marks a first printing (Random House ends at 2). A US-before-UK trap and a contents trap at once.

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

No book-club edition of the 1929 Fountain Press limited; signed limiteds are not club-issued. The reprint risk sits with the 1933 Macmillan, where the New York issue and later impressions follow the London first printing. For the 1929, the risk is not a club copy but a made-up one — confirm the limitation leaf, the half-title signature, and the Fountain Press imprint together.

I have a first edition of The Winding Stair — 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.