[PW] the cult of the first edition

[Bye, Dan J]

I don't have a definitive answer, but your reference is not anachronistic.

Note mention of first editions from Gentleman's magazine, Feb 1847:
http://tinyurl.com/3a5cdb  (links to Google Books)

Or this, from "The Analyst", of 1835 (p.154-155):
http://tinyurl.com/35efxh
"We know, now, when books are so plentiful as to be within the reach of every industrious mechanic, what a pride is felt by the possessor of any unique production of genius, and, in how many sales, a rare copy of a first edition in the infancy of printing has brought extraordinary sums. I need only instance the Bibliomania of the Roxburgh Club, and the amount of nearly 2000 guineas, paid by a noble collector in London, for a rare printed copy of one of the Italian poets, of which a modern perfect edition is to be had, in almost every bookseller's shop, for a few shillings."

Or again, this from the 1810 publication "Bibliosophia: or, Book wisdom":
http://tinyurl.com/3xhg99
p.vi has a verse:
"Who of Editions recks the least,
But, when that Hog, his Mind, would feast,
Fattens the intellectual Beast,
With old, or new, without ambition, -
I'll teach the pig to soar on high,
(If pigs had pinions, by the bye);-
Howe'er the last may satisfy,
The bonne bouche is the "First Edition"."

p.55-56 has some discussion of First Editions, and notes the "terms of eulogy" with which "The Collector" greets a first edition.


So there you go.

Dan


> -----Original Message-----
> From: project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org 
> [mailto:project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org] On 
> Behalf Of Kevin O'Kelly
> Sent: 16 August 2007 16:32
> To: list at project-wombat.org
> Subject: Re: [PW] the cult of the first edition
> 
> The patron is me so no rush. I am reviewing a novel set in 
> 1857, and am occasionally struck by anachronistic language. 
> In the chapter I finished last night, the main character is 
> in a Boston bookshop and finds  a first edition of 
> Rasselas--using that exact phrase in a discussion with a 
> friend. 1857 strikes me as rather early for the concept of 'a 
> first edition' to be on a bibliophile's mind.
> 
> My library is rather short on books on collecting. Does 
> anyone have any idea when the concept of the first edition 
> came into being?
> 
> Many thanks,
> 
> Kevin
> 
>        
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