First editions for the poetry of Alfred Lord Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and William Wordsworth

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The library is full of old books of poetry, now scanned and online thanks to Google and the Internet Archive. Does it matter which edition you use? A modern edition from a respectable publisher is a good source for reliable text. But if you want to see the actual first editions, everything from the original title page and table of contents to the entire contents, available as page images or plain text, and searchable, there are a surprising number of important editions online (mixed in with the slush pile of old editions that have been scanned). The key is knowing which editions have “authority.” Authoritative editions are ones that were published during the poet’s lifetime by his or her publisher, which would mean the publisher worked directly with the poet’s manuscripts and the poet proofread the text. The edition lists from literaryhistory.com are restricted to the authoritative English editions for the poets.

Matthew Arnold’s First Editions

Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s First Editions

Alfred Lord Tennyson’s First Editions

William Wordsworth’s First Editions

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