​The Vanity of Human Wishes was published in January 1749. The edition may have been a large one (though the pamphlet is now by no means common), or the poem may have been less popular than London; for there was no second edition. London is in the first edition (1748) of Dodsley's Collection of Poems in Three Volumes. The Vanity was not included in the third edition (1751) which, unlike the second (1748), was a mere reprint. It was, however, included in the next edition (1755), called A Collection of Poems in Four Volumes. All variations of any moment between the texts of 1749 and of 1755 are recorded in the notes.

This reprint was set up from a copy lent by Sir Charles Firth, and the proofs were read with the British Museum copy. A few 'wrong fount' letters have been corrected.

No uncut copy was available; the margins are therefore conjectural.