Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral

London is the true first and the census claim is confirmed: Archibald Bell published the book in London on 1 September 1773 after Boston printers declined it, and Cox and Berry handled the Boston sale as agents — the Boston line in the imprint does not make it an American book. There was no American edition in Wheatley's lifetime. The first American edition is Philadelphia: Joseph Crukshank, 1786, issued two years after her death; it is plainer than the London book, lacks the frontispiece portrait, and was printed in smaller numbers. The 1786 Philadelphia is separately collected as the first American, but London 1773 has precedence.