The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano

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.